Please forgive me for being so quiet on this blog but i have spent the last week falling in love.
breathlessly, heedlessly in love.
and something i have discovered is how very like love is to a number of mental health issues which i am presently studying at college.
which brings me to the point….was i falling in love or just going mad?

a remus brailoiu pic that captures, i believe, what it feels inside your heart when you fall in love
recent studies have shown how the neaurotransmittors affected in the brain during the firsts stages of falling in love are the same as those when one has Obsessive Compulisive Disorder (OCD). No wonder it is hard to think of anyone else but your love interest – a bit obsessive eh?. (find yourself doodling his/her name endlessly? and also there’s the little aspect of hoarding – keeping the bubblegum wrapper of the first chappie you shared, for instance.
what about – “my heart beats so fast when you are near” …. could that somehow be a mild panic attack – perhaps the start of General Anxiety Disorder – instead of love?
gosh and we haven’t even released the oxytocin yet – the cuddle hormone, which apparently gets released during male and female orgasm. the hormone is the one that allows mothers to go into labour and breastfeed, and also facilitates the bonding between mother and child as well. now scientists are looking at how it bonds adults since it is released during orgasm.
and then of course there is the abilty to spend an entire night just chatting till the early hours of the morning when in fact your usual bedtime is 10pm. That’s very likely the neurotransmitter dopamine that triggers desire and reward, say the scientists. An increase in dopamine leads to less need to sleep, loss of appetite (notice how little you eat in th early stages of falling in love), increased energy and focused attention. In fact, say scientists dopamine is also the neaurotransmitter that is affected in the use of drugs such as cocaine
there is also definitely elements of mania – an unusually high elevation of mood, over-the-top gift-giving and the feeling that you are invincible.
so i am afraid i may have lied when i said i was falling in love, in fact reading this i was probably just going mad.
aaah how knowledge showers on one’s love parade
and finally a martha and the muffins song, which my friend posted to me this morning and which i think is very good take on things
let\’s call it swimming