Breaking up a relationship is an ordeal that is difficult to overcome. Separation turns the world inside out, knocks you down, drives you into tears, twists your stomach, and does not let you fall asleep. Psychologists have found that suffering becomes especially unbearable if you are left for someone else. “Apart from the fact that the breakup due to infidelity forces the abandoned to endlessly torment themselves with questions about how the other is better, the experience about this intensifies the conflict between the growing sense of alienation and the internal need for belonging,” explains one of the recent articles in the Journal of Psychology personality and social psychology”.
But there is good news: emotions after a breakup can be corrected! A recent study at the University of Colorado at Boulder found that the pain associated with a tear can be alleviated with the use of a placebo (the name given to a “dummy” given to a patient as real medicine). Forty men and women who were victims of love dramas voluntarily agreed participate in a study of how the brain reacts to the breakup of a relationship. Participants were asked to bring along a photo of their loved one. After looking at the picture and thinking about the recent breakup, all respondents underwent MRI of the brain. After that, they were expected to continue the experiment (no less cruel): they were inflicted with physical pain (for sympathizers there is a detail - it is not clear what, but in the forearm area) and again sent for an MRI. As a result, it turned out that physical and emotional pain activates similar parts of the brain. As the lead author of the study, professor of psychology and neuroscience Thor Wager summarized: “Emotional suffering, in particular the experience of a breakup with loved ones, is not inferior to physical and is just as real from a neurochemical point of view.” But that's not all. The scientists continued to experiment on those with broken hearts, dividing the participants into two groups and giving the first nasal spray designed to relieve emotional pain (actually it was a placebo). Other volunteers also received an aerosol, but they knew that it contained only saline. After two weeks, those who knew they were rinsing their nostrils with salted water did not lessen their feelings, but the rest, believing that they were using something effective, felt much better. Impressive? Definitely. Different types of suffering involve the same areas of the brain, but emotional trauma heals faster if you make the brain believe in a healing agent. It remains only to find a therapist who will prescribe sweets, sorry, pills for a broken heart.