The Pain Of Heartbreak, For Real

New research shows that the same areas of the brain that are activated when an individual experiences pain are activated when an individual feels rejected from someone he or she loves. According to Ethan Kross, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, this research shows that individuals crushed by a romantic breakup may experience actual physical pain. Kross and a group of other researchers from the University of Colorado - Boulder and Columbia University gathered forty individuals who had gone through a romantic breakup in the past six months. Each individual claimed to have feelings of rejection and pain in the time after the breakup. The forty students underwent MRIs and while undergoing them were presented with a photo of their ex-partner and asked how they felt during the breakup, presented with a photo of a friend and asked to think about the most recent positive experience with that person, and had to wear an arm device that created pain sensations so that they could measure physical pain reactions in the brain. Researchers scanned five hundred other people's brains in order to compare the brain's reaction to physical pain, emotion, and psychological processes. The studies showed that experiencing intense social rejection activates the same part of the brain that is involved in the sensory experience of physical pain. Kross, the social psychologist, states that this information may lead to a closer look into how heartbreak and rejection may lead to different types of physical illness and disorders because the mind, brain, and body are so closely connected. An assistant professor of psychology at UCLA named Naomi Eisenberger claims that her research shows that taking tylenol can lower the pain of social rejection or hurt feelings. This research has not gone far enough to say that pain relievers could diminish the pain of heartbreak, but Eisenberger states that current research continues to explain how humans are very social beings, so much so that when individuals experience social rejection, the brain interprets it as physical damaging to the body.

This information applies to the real world because it gives insight into how different emotions and feelings can actually take a physical toll on individuals. Also, this specific discovery makes scientists, researchers, doctors, therapists, etc. aware that high emotions can result in physical pain. As the article stated, this insight gives these professionals a better look at how rejection and heartbreak may lead to different types of physical illness or disorders of the mind, brain, or body. This information also gives professionals a better judgement of how to treat individuals experiencing intense emotion after a breakup or serious rejection. Thus, with this information it is possible that scientists may discover how other intense emotions such as extreme sadness, anger, love, jealousy, happiness, etc. affect the body physically and mentally. Also, this study may help researchers in figuring out why other mental and physical disorders occur and how to fix them in diagnosed individuals. This is because this information brings up the possibility that intense emotions trigger certain signals in the brain like pain or in different cases maybe something like the same signals that go off when under the influence of drugs. With studies such as that, researchers would also be able to look at why people override rationality when under the influence of intense emotion because there is a possibility that their brain is being signaled in ways that had previously gone unnoticed.

I chose to look further into this article because the content is really interesting to me. Topics that have to do with how the brain works and how the brain sends signals due to different emotions intrigue me. This particular article is especially interesting because the information is unexpected, but it kind of makes sense. I am sure that if a large number of individuals who have experienced a sudden breakup or some sort of intense rejection at some point in their lifetimes, they would recall their feelings as painful. Therefore, this study brings new meaning to the term heartbreak or heartache because individuals' brains are signaling actual physical pain. As stated before, this study also sheds light on why some individuals may fall into depression or some other sort of mental, social, or physical disorder following a sudden end to a relationship and that interested me as well. Experiencing mental and social anguish is difficult enough and challenges a person's stability, but with the addition of constant physical pain, it is no wonder there are individuals in the world who spend months on end sulking, crying, bumming out, etc. after a bad breakup. This article gave me a different look at what individuals may go through following heartbreak or social rejection because I personally have never really experienced the emotional toll before. I know that in the future if a close friend or family member goes through a bad breakup, I will not jump to conclusions about that person just feeling bad about him or herself. I will not tell that individual that he or she just needs to get over it and move on because according to this article, that is not as easy as it sounds.

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