lovesickness

In the medical texts of ancient Greece and Rome, lovesickness was characterized as a "depressive" disease, "typified by sadness, insomnia, despondency, dejection, physical debility, and blinking."{{cite journal |last1=Toohey |first1=Peter |title=Love, Lovesickness, and Melancholia |journal=Illinois Classical Studies |date=1992 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=265–286 |jstor=23064324 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23064324 |access-date=20 December 2021}} In Hippocratic texts, "love melancholy" is expected as a result of passionate love.{{cite web|last=Tallis|first=Frank|title=Is Love a Mental Illness?|url=http://www.franktallis.com/lovesick.htm|access-date=26 March 2014|archive-date=12 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912164228/http://www.franktallis.com/lovesick.htm|url-status=dead}} Lovesickness could be cured through the acquisition of the person of interest, such as in the case of Prince Antiochus.{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=James C. |title=Lovesickness: Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus' Disease |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1171952 |journal=Archives of General Psychiatry |access-date=20 December 2021 |pages=549 |doi=10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.105 |date=1 June 2012|volume=69 |issue=6 |pmid=22664546 }}

In ancient literature, however, lovesickness manifested itself in "violent and manic" behavior. In ancient Greece, Euripides' play Medea portrays Medea's descent into "violence and mania" as a result of her lovesickness for Jason;{{cite book |last1=Toohey |first1=Peter |title=Melancholy, love, and time : boundaries of the self in ancient literature |date=2004 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472025596 |pages=59–103 }} meanwhile, in ancient Rome, Virgil's Dido has a manic reaction to the betrayal of her lover, Aeneas, and commits suicide.{{cite journal |last1=Toohey |first1=Peter |title=Love, Lovesickness, and Melancholia |journal=University of Illinois Press |date=Fall 1992 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=265–286 |jstor=23064324 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23064324 |access-date=20 December 2021}} Dido's case is especially interesting, as the cause of her lovesickness is attributed to the meddling of the gods Juno and Venus.{{cite book |last1=Virgil |title=The Aeneid |date=1993 |publisher=Harvill |location=London |isbn=978-0002713689}}

In the Middle Ages, unrequited love was considered "a trauma which, for the medieval melancholic, was difficult to relieve."{{cite web |last1=Kalas |first1=Laura |title=Being lovesick was a real disease in the Middle Ages |url=https://theconversation.com/being-lovesick-was-a-real-disease-in-the-middle-ages-70919 |website=The Conversation |date=13 February 2017 |language=en}} Treatments included light therapy, rest, exposure to nature, and a diet of lamb, lettuce, fish, eggs, and ripe fruit.

File:Death of Dido by Joseph Stallaert, c. 1872, oil on canvas - Cinquantenaire Museum - Brussels, Belgium - DSC08548.jpg

In both antiquity and the Middle Ages, lovesickness was often explained by an imbalance in the humors. An excess of black bile, the humor correlated with melancholy, was usually considered the cause.

In 1915, Sigmund Freud asked rhetorically, "Isn't what we mean by 'falling in love' a kind of sickness and craziness, an illusion, a blindness to what the loved person is really like?"Janet Malcolm, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (1988) p. 9

Scientific study on the topic of lovesickness has found that those in love experience a kind of high similar to that caused by illicit drugs such as cocaine. In the brain, certain neurotransmitters — phenethylamine, dopamine, norepinephrine and oxytocin — elicit the feeling of high from "love" or "falling in love" using twelve different regions of the brain. These neurotransmitters mimic the feeling of amphetamines.{{cite web|last=Vaughn|first=Tricia|title=Love sickness is real, and the high it provides looks a lot like cocaine usage|url=http://cw.ua.edu/2013/02/13/love-sickness-is-real-and-the-high-it-provides-looks-a-lot-like-cocaine-usage/|work=Article|publisher=The Crimson White|access-date=28 March 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407101820/http://cw.ua.edu/2013/02/13/love-sickness-is-real-and-the-high-it-provides-looks-a-lot-like-cocaine-usage/|archive-date=7 April 2014}}

On average, a psychologist does not get referrals from general practitioners mentioning "lovesickness", although this can be prevalent through the language of what the patient feels. With the common symptoms of lovesickness being related to other mental diseases, it is often misdiagnosed or it is found that with all the illnesses one could be facing, love is the underlying problem.{{cite book|last=Tallis|first=Frank|title=Love Sick: Love as a Mental Illness|year=2004|publisher=Da Capo Press|edition=Second}} This is incredibly dangerous when one does not seek help or cannot cope because love has been known to be fatal (a consequence of which might be attempted suicide, thus dramatising the ancient contention that love can be fatal).{{cite journal | url = http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm/volumeID_18-editionID_115-ArticleID_809-getfile_getPDF/thepsychologist/0205tall.pdf | last = Tallis | first = F | journal = The Psychologist | year = 2005 | volume = 18 | issue = 2 | pages = 72–4 | title = Truly, madly deeply in love | access-date = 2014-04-02 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120505144939/http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm/volumeID_18-editionID_115-ArticleID_809-getfile_getPDF/thepsychologist/0205tall.pdf | archive-date = 2012-05-05 | url-status = dead }}

In his book The Social Nature of Mental Illness, Len Bowers postulates that although physiological differences exist in the brains of those that are deemed "mentally ill", there are several other criteria that must be met before the differences can be called a malfunction. It is possible, therefore, that many mental illnesses (such as lovesickness) will never bear strong enough evidence to clinically warrant "legitimate" affliction by clinical standards without further correspondingly parasympathetic criteria of established dysfunction(s).

Frank Tallis, a researcher of love and lovesickness, suggests in his 2005 article that lovesickness occurs when one is "truly, madly, deeply" in love and should be taken more seriously by medical professionals.

Tallis includes a list of common symptoms of lovesickness in the following:

• Mania - an abnormally elevated mood or inflated self-esteem
• Depression, hopelessness, or helplessness
• Nausea
• Tearfulness
• Insomnia, which may lead to fatigue
• Lack of concentration
• Loss of appetite or overeating
• Stress
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder - preoccupation and hoarding valueless but superstitiously resonant items
• Dizziness and confusion
• Body tremors, intrusive thoughts, or frequent flashbacks
• Mood swings

According to Tallis, many symptoms of lovesickness can be categorized under the DSM-IV and the ICD-10. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a symptom of lovesickness because it includes a preoccupation. A further study conducted by Italian psychiatrist Donatella Marazitti found that people who were in the early romantic phase of a love relationship had their serotonin levels drop to levels found in patients with OCD. This level is significantly lower than that of an average or healthy person.{{cite journal |vauthors=Marazziti D, Akiskal HS, Rossi A, Cassano GB |title=Alteration of the platelet serotonin transporter in romantic love |journal=Psychol Med |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=741–5 |date=May 1999 |pmid=10405096 |doi= 10.1017/S0033291798007946|s2cid=12630172 }}

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet portrays the true madness of "love" and the grief that the two young, infatuated lovers feel.{{cite book|last=Shakespeare|first=William|title=Romeo and Juliet|year=1985 |publisher=CBC Enterprises |isbn=9780887941344 |url=https://archive.org/details/romeojuliet0000shak_i0i3|url-access=registration}} When Romeo finds his love dead (or so he believes), with the thought of living without his "true love", the grief and depression overcomes him and he takes his own life. After waking and seeing his dead body, Juliet is overcome with despair and takes her own life.

Gothic metal songs thematize lovesickness from Medieval literary influences. "This emotional and physical distress is a key element of fin'amor that echoes into Gothic metal", according to The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism. "In particular, lovesickness was associated with desires and passions that remained unfulfilled, resulting in symptoms such as sleeplessness, sighing, and loss of appetite, all of which were considered manifestations of the mind's efforts to restrain its passions."{{cite book|editor1-last=Yri|editor1-first=Kirsten|editor2-last=Meyer|editor2-first=Stephen C.|year=2020|title=The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780190658465|chapter=Medievalistic Melancholia and Lovesickness|page=552}}

The lyrics to American R&B singer Bilal's song "Something to Hold on To" (from the album Love for Sale) are described as a plea to romantic devotion hastily written in a moment of lovesickness.{{cite news|last=Godfrey|first=Sarah|date=January 29, 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2007/01/29/by-grace-of-myspace-no-new-album-but-bilal-packs-black-cat/c1a2a831-4d61-439e-957b-4fe150fb9c40/|title=By Grace of MySpace: No New Album, but Bilal Packs Black Cat|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=July 20, 2020}}

Bob Dylan's song "Love Sick," from his 1997 album Time Out of Mind, portrays the conflicting feelings (betrayal and intense love) that come with lovesickness:

{{blockquote|text=

I’m sick of love…I wish I’d never met you
I’m sick of love…I’m trying to forget you

Just don't know what to do
I'd give anything to be with you

|author=Bob Dylan

|title=Love Sick from Time Out of Mind{{Cite web |title=Love Sick {{!}} The Official Bob Dylan Site |url=https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/love-sick/ |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=www.bobdylan.com}}}}

• Affectional bond
• Hi-wa itck, a Mojave syndrome triggered by separation of a loved one
• Limerence
• Lovestruck
• Obsessive love disorder
• Triangular theory of love

{{reflist|colwidth=40em}}

• {{cite book |first=Frank |last=Tallis |title=Love Sick: Love as a Mental Illness |year=2005 }}
• {{cite news |first=Tricia |last=Vaughn |title=Love sickness is real, and the high it provides looks a lot like cocaine usage |year=2013 |url=https://cw.ua.edu/14647/culture/love-sickness-is-real-and-the-high-it-provides-looks-a-lot-like-cocaine-usage/ }}
• {{cite book|last1=Bowers|first1=Len|title=The social nature of mental illness|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0415227771}}
• {{cite journal |first=Helen |last=King |title=The Secret Wound: Love, Melancholy and Early Modern Romance (review) |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |volume=82 |issue=2 |year=2008 |pages=445–446 |doi=10.1353/bhm.0.0009 |s2cid=71371213 }}

Category:Emotion

Category:Emotional issues

Category:Love

Category:Psychodynamics