Heartbreak : Effects on health and ways to overcome it

Heartbreak seems to be inevitable. We cannot escape from it. But we have experienced it one way or another way in our life. There are different moments that are heartbreaking for us. We use different heartbreak synonym like grief, suffering, pain, heartache, etc to express our emotions and things we are going through. So many people ask why does love hurts? let’s know something about this as well.

Our heartbreak occurs from a breakup with the person who we thought were the ones. It can also occur from the death of our loved ones. But dealing with it is always hard and unfathomable. There is no cure or medicine for heartbreak. But there are ways which will help us to lessen it.

What is heartbreak and heartbreaking?

A heart’s that broken is the heart that’s been loved – Ed Sheeran

This verse in the song really gives us exposure that loving someone so much and a sudden departure can lead to heartbreak. It is really heartbreaking phase to deal with. But let’s find out what really is heartbreak and heartbreaking.

Simply understanding it is the worst feeling felt by a person and makes the person lonely and alone and the person feels their heart being broken to pieces if speaking literally about it. It a state not so many people can cope with it.

Jo Hemmings a psychologist and relationship coach says that “Essentially, it is a state of devastating emotional loss”. Some state it as a type of emotional injury or a sort of chronic emotional pain cause the brain is seeing it as a traumatic experience.

Although many well-renowned people have their own way to describe heartbreak the intense sense of sadness, pain, grief, and loneliness and the inability to move forward by being bound to the past remains a common trait in a heartbreak. When some people experience heartbreaking incidents it also results in heartbreak.

How does it affect your health?

Heartbreak has a significant effect on your health as it affects your brain too. As the heart is already under-construction but the brain seems to be in dilemma too. Most people think it is due to the effect of the heart. But they fail to see its effect on the brain. When someone says it was heartbreaking for him/her they fail to see and know that it affects both heart and mind.

Let’s see how our brain gets affected by it.

1. A research conducted on 10 women and 5 men who have been recently rejected by a partner. But they were still intensely in love their neuronal system was seen using MRI. The research showed that romantic rejecters and cocaine cravings have several neuronal correlates in common. This research brought insight into why the feelings and behavior during romantic rejection are difficult to control and leads to depression, suicide conditions well. Because the area of the brain which is activated during a breakup and cocaine addict is the same. So like an addict we suffer from withdrawal symptoms.
2. Winch who is a well-known psychologist has said that the powerful withdrawal symptoms which have occurred from the loss of love will impact our ability to think, focus, and function in the broadest terms. He also said that an addict is unable to do well in social and personal life so a similar thing happens to us during a heartbreak
3. We are unable to comprehend the truth and false that has happened to us during a heartbreak. Research done by the University of California has stated that even a person having a photogenic memory doesn’t remember everything perfectly. So. Our minds can be fooled into believing things that are not the way they are or distorting the truth.
4. So, what happens when we are under a lot of stress which is normal during heartbreak. According to a study published by ASU researcher Sabrina Segal in the journal, Neuroscience stated that during stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine are released. During this research, it was known that a negative experience is remembered quickly when it is traumatic enough to release cortisol and nor-epinephrine shortly after the event.
5. Similarly, the hormone which makes us feel good like dopamine and oxytocin when we are in love, their level seemed to be dropped and were replaced by the stress hormone cortisol. The stress hormone cortisol gets secreted in response to flight or fight response. But when it is secreted in more amount for a long period of time then it will cause unpleasant mental and physical symptoms like anxiety, acne, nausea, and weight gain which is seen in individuals going through heartbreak.

So, in this way we have seen how heartbreak has affected our brain and body.

Why does love hurt?

Many people ask why does love hurts? Let’s find about it. Love hurts because there is a connection or attachment formed between your loved ones and you or with you and your partner and when this connection breaks you will feel pain and suffer from withdrawal. The withdrawal symptoms are like the same seen in the person after leaving drugs or tobacco. Similarly, the expectation lingering also makes it more painful. Many people after going through heartbreak often ask why does love hurts?. The answer to this why does love hurt? varies but the above mentioned are the common reasons. I hope you now know something regarding why does love hurt?

How can we heal?

I think nobody wants to get stuck in this heartbreaking and gut-wrenching pain phase. So everybody wants to heal their broken heart. So let’s look at what we can do to heal from it.

After the heartbreak, the brain has reruns images and memories of the loved ones of your ex or your partner. We must break this loop. But it is hard to do so because some people are not aware of it.  Due to which it is hard to move on and heal their broken heart. The healing process is hard but there are ways that can aid us to heal ourselves from our heartbreak.

The first step is to reduce contact with the person but cutting off completely with them. This means not checking their whereabouts on social media or calling them to know about them. Because each time you do this it will just open up your wound and you will bleed instead of healing.

In the second step, you much keep some distance from them and let your mind and body adapt to your life without them. Next is we must try our best to think less of the person as possible. Great willpower and distraction are a must for this task.

We must distract ourselves either by indulging ourselves with things we like to do like journaling, writing, blogging or crafts, etc. Engage ourselves to spend quality time with friends or family or with our close and near peoples is a way to distract ourselves too. We have to sometimes force ourselves to do the things that are good for us but don’t sound appealing to us.

Healing from heartbreak is an uphill battle. It needs great willpower and patience. It requires a lot of time. Although is hard it not impossible. Just you need to work on it moved forward cause there is always a rainbow after the rain.

Takeaway:

Heartbreak has a significant effect on your health as it affects your brain too. As the heart is already under-construction but the brain seems to be in dilemma too. Most people think it is due to the effect of the heart. But they fail to see its effect in the brain. When someone says it was heartbreaking for him/her they fail to see and know that it affects both heart and mind. Many people ask why does love hurt? Love hurts because there is a connection or attachment formed between your loved ones and you or with you and your partner and when this connection breaks you will feel pain and suffer from withdrawal.