First the butterflies in the belly, the first emotions, then the descent, decline and rupture. Sometimes that’s how romantic relationships go. A roller coaster that ends with losses and crashes. Often underestimated, heartache can be more painful than you imagine.
Certainly ruptures have a lasting impact on the heart and the mind: fear of finding someone, lack of self-confidence… but they can have a very real impact on our body too!
“A permanent state of alert”
“A person in love produces much less stress than normal” testifies to the Figaro Didier Grandjean professor in neuropsychology“the amygdala zones being in decline of activity, love creates us a state of excitation and permanent euphoria” he attests.
But when the rupture occurs, the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline then come back at a run: “at a higher level than normal” he testifies. What puts our body in a “permanent state of alert.
broken heart syndrome
Lisa Letessier, psychotherapist, abounds: “on average we observe a weight loss of five kilos in people who have suffered a rupture“. Other consequences follow in cascade on the breathing but also on the cardiac level: drop in heartbeat (without laughing?), bad transit and intestinal disorders. It is not for nothing that the intestine is said to be our second brain.
For the most serious cases, a breakup can lead to Tako tsubo syndrome. Synthesis of what one might call “the disease of broken heartsthis very rare disease occurs after an intense emotional shock. Kind of infarction, it is characterized by palpitations with totally arrhythmic beats and insufficient cardiac retraction. So lift your hearts while waiting for the end of winter!
Sources used:
How a breakup affects the brain, heart and body?
Cosmopolitan: A breakup causes real physical pain, it’s been proven.