Travels with Grumpus

“Is it love, or mental illness?” asks the Wall Street Journal.

At some point in life, most of us will face a major mental-health crisis. It is called love.

Science is beginning to pay more attention to the chemical storm that romantic love can trigger in our brains. Recent studies of brain scans show that being in love causes changes in the brain that are strikingly similar to serious health problems like drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder

The article says that scientists have looked at MRI images of people’s brains when shown photos of people they were deeply in love with, and photos of people they knew but had no romantic feelings for:

Compared with the neutral photos, a lover’s picture triggers the dopamine system in the brain — the same system associated with pleasure and addiction.

To my dear Grumpus, dragged away from me tonight by that nuisance called a business trip, I’m still crazy as it turns out. Love is the essence of life.