You may not be aware of it, but something physical and tangible could happen to your body after a breakup. The heartache and bodily changes that you may feel are not only figments of your imagination but are actually real. In fact, although rare, there are documented cases of people dying because of bereavement. A breakup is also one form of loss; hence, your body can undergo physical changes.
These facts are based on various studies conducted by expert researchers on this topic. One specific study was done by Dr. Ilan Wittstein et al, which revealed that losing someone can cause broken heart syndrome or stress cardiomyopathy. Also termed “takotsubo” syndrome, it’s characterized by chest pain and all the other symptoms that you undergo when you breakup with your lover.
During a breakup, you may experience the following physical symptoms
- Chest pain
- Dyspnea (difficulty in breathing)
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Palpitations
- Nervousness
- Headache
- Nausea and vomiting
You can experience these symptoms not because of an existing illness, but because of an emotional cause – your ‘broken’ heart.
Why do you feel sick?
Even if you don’t have an actual pathological illness, you feel sick because the primary source of your symptoms is your brain. When you think that you’re heartbroken, your brain acknowledges this stimulus. It would then trigger the emergency hormones (catecholamine) in your body to respond to this imagined situation.
Your brain could trigger these hormones, which will then elicit the physical symptoms. The chemicals involved in this occurrence are your catecholamine hormones. They tend to increase your blood pressure; elevate your blood sugar; quicken your respiration; and accomplish all sorts of physiological functions to cope with the ‘emergency’ situation in your body.
Thus, the brain plays a pivotal role in the physical manifestations of your heartbreak symptoms. Yes, your thoughts play an important role in this scenario. If your brain refuses to acknowledge the stimulus, and – instead – you harbor positive thoughts, you won’t be experiencing these symptoms. But because you believe that your heart is broken, this thought utilizes the same neural pathway that is activated during pathological illnesses. The same nerve fibers are used and the same symptoms like that of pathological cardiac myopathy (cardiac disease) appear.
Aside from these physical changes in your body, you could also suffer from depression, anxiety and stress. You go into mood swings and undergo sleep disturbances. The same emergency hormones would be activated by your brain to cope with these harmful behavioral changes.
Knowing that you have the power to cure yourself of your broken heart can hasten your recovery. Take note that it’s all in your mind. The thoughts in your mind can, likewise, have the power to make these symptoms disappear. As the cliché goes; “What your mind can conceive, your body can achieve.”
Scientific researches proved that believing you would get well, will facilitate your recovery. They performed this by administering placebo (substance without the medication) to test groups (informing them that it was the genuine medication), while administering the genuine drug other groups. The test groups showed significant improvement of their sick conditions, just like the other group who took in the genuine drug. Isn’t this an astonishing discovery? These scientific trials confirm the previous researches that you can get well quickly from an actual disease, if you truly believe you can.
So, use your brain power to get yourself out of the misery of your breakup. By changing your negative thoughts to more optimistic ones, you can get over your breakup in no time at all.
