Monday, August 2, 1999 Published at 13:22 GMT 14:22 UK
Crazy little thing called love?
Love and obsession are two entirely different things. Love is that enviable state that knows no envy or vanity. Love is more than an emotion; it is the substance of our being!
Deepa Pant, Kuwait
Cannot falling in love drive you just as mad?
Laura Willoughby, UK
Background │Vote │Your reaction│Have your say
The Vote:
Does falling in love drive you mad?
Yes ( ) No ( )
Background│Vote│Your reaction│Have your say
The Background:
Can't eat, can't sleep, can't stop grinning like a Cheshire cat, can't stop thinking about that certain someone - classic symptoms of love? Well actually, you could be going mad.
An Italian researcher has found that people in the first flush of love have a lot in common with sufferers of obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
People with OCD and people in love both get fixated with things and both have very low levels of the feel-good chemical Serotonin - which has a soothing effect on the brain.
The research published in the New Scientist has received mixed reactions in the science community, but Thomas lnsel, of Emory University, thinks it's about time failing in love was studied as a relevant human emotion.
"Any of us who have fallen in love know that this is a profoundly biological process. Now somebody's actually trying to understand how," he said.
Do you think falling head over heels for someone sends you a bit crazy? Have you spent hours on end fantasizing about your latest hot romance, when you should be getting on with something else? Do you think love and obsession are the same thing? Send us your views and experiences.
Background│Vote│Your reaction│Have your say
_______________________________________
YOUR REACTION:
"To be wise and to be in love is scarcely granted even to a god." Latin proverb
Kirk O'Connor, UK
YES!!! Falling in love drives you totally crazy... I've fallen in love with a beautiful creature... and I don't know where he came from... the only way l can describe him is as a bronzed Adonis... whenever I look into his eyes... I just melt...
WW, UK
I cannot believe that someone actually funded this project. There are so many worthwhile causes that go unnoticed, so we can examine another superficial aspect of our lives. Love is not a disease that needs to be cured or avoided. If they have all this money to throw away maybe they should look at it from another angle... Why do people allow themselves to fall out of love? Are they mad? If you ask me, those are the ones that need help!
Bonnie, USA
I am so gob-smacked by the BBC putting something up that equates having obsessive compulsive disorder with 'being mad'. That is certainly discrimination! There are a whole lot of us out here with OCD and I can assure you we ain't mad. Having OCD is not the same as 'being obsessed' about a person - and we certainly aren't like stalkers. Like being in love? This scientist needs HIS head examined I am afraid.
People who are depressed (is this like love?) also have problems with serotonin levels - serotonin is associated with many problems, with emotions. This theory is equivalent to saying being in love must be the same as heart disease because it affects your heart beat! Leaving OCD out of this, yes, there are aspects of falling in love, sometimes, that are similar to temporary insanity.
It depends how it takes you - falling in love is different for different people and their behavior varies greatly. Some ways of falling in love seem like insanity and that I believe is why the ancient Greeks regarded the experience as being 'possessed' by Aphrodite. It can be a divine experience of possession, of course. Or it can make you mad.
Imogen Woolf, UK
I can't believe that this research is being funded. What's the point? Love is a wonderful emotion and to study it takes its fun away. Feelings are feelings, not research subjects!
Gareth Hagger-Johnson, UK
http://newsl.this.bbc.co.uk/ht/english/talking_ point/newsid_40/000/40/080.asp
In "I can not believe that someone actually funded this project" (Bonnie, USA), ACTUALLY means: