How to Get Over a Breakup: 5 Neuroscience-Backed Steps
Why does heartbreak feel like withdrawal? Discover what a breakup does to your brain, plus 5 neuroscience-backed steps to heal and find yourself again.
Key takeaways
Heartbreak feels like withdrawal because romantic love works like an addiction in the brain. Falling in love fires the dopamine-rich ventral tegmental area (VTA), so the brain treats love like a survival need, closer to hunger or thirst. A breakup cuts off dopamine, oxytocin and vasopressin, and cortisol and adrenaline flood in.
A breakup feels like losing part of yourself because the brain merges your partner into your identity…
The skinny
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