![]() ![]() ![]() In both antiquity and the Middle Ages, lovesickness was often explained by an imbalance in the humors. 1872, oil on canvas - Cinquantenaire Museum - Brussels, Belgium - DSC08548.jpg The Death of Dido by Joseph Stallaert, c. In the Middle Ages, unrequited love was considered "a trauma which, for the medieval melancholic, was difficult to relieve." Treatments included light therapy, rest, exposure to nature, and a diet of lamb, lettuce, fish, eggs, and ripe fruit. Dido's case is especially interesting, as the cause of her lovesickness is attributed to the meddling of the gods Juno and Venus. In ancient Greece, Euripides' play Medea portrays Medea's descent into "violence and mania" as a result of her lovesickness for Jason meanwhile, in ancient Rome, Virgil's Dido has a manic reaction to the betrayal of her lover, Aeneas, and commits suicide. In ancient literature, however, lovesickness manifested itself in "violent and manic" behavior. ![]() Lovesickness could be cured through the acquisition of the person of interest, such as in the case of Prince Antiochus. ![]() In the medical texts of ancient Greece and Rome, lovesickness was characterized as a "depressive" disease, "typified by sadness, insomnia, despondency, dejection, physical debility, and blinking." In Hippocratic texts, "love melancholy" is expected as a result of passionate love. The term "lovesickness" is rarely used in modern medicine and psychology, though new research is emerging on the impact of heartbreak on the body and mind. If anything, limerence can be considered the fool's gold of love.Lovesickness refers to an affliction that can produce negative feelings when deeply in love, during the absence of a loved one or when love is unrequited. As couples' therapist Silva Depanian, LMFT, previously explained to mbg, "Many people don't really recognize the existence of limerence and simply consider someone experiencing it to be a ' hopeless romantic' or 'passionately in love.' But limerence and love are not the same thing. In this way, lovesickness is similar to limerence, or an intense infatuation. "There's a clear distinction because when you genuinely love somebody, you're not obsessing about them," she says, noting that when someone is lovesick, they're often seeing the object of their affection with rose-colored glasses. Nuñez adds that it's important to note being lovesick is not the same as genuinely being in love. According to the aforementioned research, there is a general agreement on symptoms of lovesickness across different cultures, including fever, agitation, loss of appetite, headache, rapid breathing, and palpitations. Just as being brokenhearted can quite literally disrupt your heart health (aka " broken heart syndrome"), lovesickness, too, has physical effects. From obsessive thoughts to feelings of anxiety to loss of appetite, lovesickness can be all-consuming. In general, psychotherapist Annette Nuñez, M.S., Ph.D., tells mbg that lovesickness happens when your romantic feelings for someone completely take over your mind and body. While not a clinically recognized mental health condition, research on lovesickness suggests that it's a real disorder 1, characterized by a number of mental and physical symptoms that can range from mild to extreme. To be "lovesick" is to be so in love or miss the person you love so much that you are unable to act normally. ![]()
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