“In neuroscience, our textbook showed how the brain scans of people newly in love look a lot like the brain scans of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In each case, your dopamine is suppressing your serotonin.”
“That's what falling in love really amounted to, your brain on drugs. Adrenaline and dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. Chemical insanity, celebrated by poets.”
“Most people think love comes from the heart or soul. The heart simple pumps blood, so love can't be created there. Where is the center for what appears to be a persons soul? The brain. And what is created there Jilly? That's right-dopamine. What does dopamine do? creates feelings of love and euphoria. How do we get our brains to create more? Drugs, massage, and or sex. Boil it down and it's all just dopamine. The good news is that you can also get more dopamine pumping through your brain by skiing fast...”
“Had your eyes tested?” “Yeah. My vision’s fine. They’ve done brain scans, too.” “Did they find anything?” “Nothing.” “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“love is a mental illness, an obsessive-compulsive disorder romanticized!”
“Studies have found that the same areas in the brain that light up in imaging scans when we break a leg are activated when we split up with our mate. As part of a reaction to a breakup, our brain experiences the departure of an attachment figure in a similar way to that in which it registers physical pain.”