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Love as a Mental Illness
Literature and poetry has always described love as a kind of madness, and the medical profession takes a similar approach. According to the Hippocratic Medicine view, passionate love will almost always fade or turn into 'love melancholy’- this is a form of depression or sadness. Passionate love is the love in the "honeymoon phase", the beginning of new love, but it burns itself out after a year or two, compassionate love is what occurs after passionate love fades, it is a stronger bond of companionship. In both cases, lovesickness can be experienced if love is lost or unrequited.

As early as 1915, Freud asked rhetorically, "Isn't what we mean by 'falling in love' a kind of sickness and craziness, an illusion, a blindness to what the loved person is really like. Even before that, in 360 B.C.E Plato once said, “Love is a serious mental disease,” and Socrates added that “Love is a madness”, and how true are these wise words. Love sickness isn’t just a form of expression for those head-over-heels, but has been studied as an actual illness.

Scientific study on the topic of lovesickness has found that those in love experience a kind of high similar to that cause by illicit drugs such as cocaine. In the brain, certain neurotransmitter– phenethylamine, dopamine, norepinephrine and oxytocin – elicit the feeling of high from “love” or “falling in love” using 12 different regions or the brain. These neurotransmitters mimic the feeling of amphetamines.

On average a psychologist does not get referrals from general practitioners mentioning "lovesickness", although this can be prevalent through the language of what the patient feels. With the common symptoms of lovesickness being related to other mental diseases, it is often misdiagnosed or it is found that with all the illnesses one could be facing, love is the underlying problem. This is incredibly dangerous when one does not seek help or cannot cope because love has been known to be fatal (a consequence of which might be attempted suicide, thus dramatising the ancient contention that love can be fatal).

Symptoms
Dr. Frank Tallis, a researcher in the topic of love and lovesick, suggests in his 2005 article that lovesickness occurs when one is “truly, madly, deeply” in love and should be taken more seriously by medical professionals. Similarly, health experts agree that lovesickness has been known to kill and the diagnosis process should be taken more seriously. Symptoms of lovesickness are usually misdiagnosed for various other diseases or mental health issues such as OCD, this is because love sickness is less commonly recognized as a mental health issue in itself even though lovesickness is an extremely common, widespread disease.

Tallis includes a list of common symptoms of love sickness:
 * Mania; an abnormally elevated mood or inflated self-esteem
 * Depression
 * Tearfulness
 * Insomnia
 * Lack of concentration
 * Loss of appetite or overeating
 * Hopelessness or helplessness
 * Stress- high blood pressure, pain in chest and heart, acute insomnia; sometimes brought on by a "crush"
 * Obsessive-Compulsive disorder - Preoccupation and hoarding valueless but superstitiously resonant items
 * Psychologically created physical symptoms, such as upset stomach, change in appetite, insomnia, dizziness, and confusion

According to Tallis, Many symptoms of being lovesick categorize under the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases). Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) is a symptom of lovesickness because it includes a preoccupation, this would include constantly checking your cellphone, Facebook, the hoarding of valueless items, etc. A further study conducted by an Italian Psychiatrist Donatella Marazitti found that when people fall in love their estimated serotonin levels drop to levels found in patients with OCD, this level is significantly lower than that of an average or healthy person.

Literary Example
The classic play by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet portrays the true madness of "love" and the grief that the two young, infatuated lovers feel. When Romeo finds his love dead, with the thought of living without his "true love", the grief and depression overcomes him and he takes his own life, upon seeing his dead body, Juliet too is overcome with this despair and takes her own life.