Love is just another addiction, Ontario university researcher says

KITCHENER, Ont. (CP) - Love . . . it's an addiction, just like alcohol,
cocaine or gambling, a researcher says. Chemically speaking, that
ecstatic, floating-on-clouds feeling is exactly what addicts feel with a hit
of alcohol or another addictive drug, said George Bubenik, a University
of Guelph zoologist.

Romantic love and drug addictions both make the body release
hormones which trigger the production of dopamine, a brain chemical
that floods the body with pleasure and is responsible for all addictions,
Bubenik said.

That might not seem romantic, but it sure helps explain the highs and
lows of relationships.

The intensity of falling in love is like the high from a drug.

Especially during sex, so much dopamine can be produced that it can
permanently rewire the brain.

"If the sex is really good," said Bubenik, "you'll stay together for life.
People with a good sex life will stay together even if the relationship is
going sour."

This is part of the reason some people stay in destructive or abusive
relationships, he said.

They should leave, but can't -because they're addicted to the feelings
they have during sex with their partner.

Meanwhile, if a relationship breaks up, there are traumatic feelings of
anxiety, cravings that can't be satisfied, sadness, anger - feelings
matched by anyone who's tried to quit smoking or drinking.

Studies on animals show the hormone oxytocin, which is released during
sex and triggers the production of dopamine, plays a large part in
whether you mate for life.

The prairie vole bonds for life when it copulates. "But if you block the
oxytocin, they don't bond," Bubenik said.

Unlike alcohol, heroin and tobacco, "no one ever proved that having too
much sex will kill you," he said.

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