Pain in the Brain

You feel like you just got hit by a truck.  You feel like you are going to throw up.  You can’t get yourself to eat, and getting out of bed sounds like an impossible task. 

           

Unfortunately, these are the feelings that all too frequently accompany our break-ups.  When a romantic relationship ends, we are left to grieve the loss of this relationship, which can lead to a major depressive episode in some individuals¹.

As depression is a very serious topic and should not be taken lightly, it is important to differentiate between feeling sad, grieving, and being clinically depressed.  While the three emotional states may seem very similar, there are actually some differences in the way these emotions manifest.  The normal feeling of sadness is triggered by certain events, and is considered an emotional experience.  Grief is more prolonged than sadness, and typically generates depressive symptoms that can last for days to several months.  While grief is a major risk factor for clinical depression and there are similarities between the two, there are also differences¹.

Grief and clinical depression, which is called major depressive disorder have many symptoms in common.  Sadness, insomnia, poor appetite, and weight loss are all symptoms individuals experience while grieving, as well as during major depressive disorder.  One of the main differences is that grief tends to be trigger-related and feel more intense and unbearable at first, and then is more variable over time.  For example, a grieving individual may feel relatively better when they are surrounded by their supportive and loving friends and family.  However, they may feel more triggered on certain days or events, like their loved one’s birthday, which can bring back old feelings and memories.

On the other hand, major depressive disorder is generally much more pervasive than grief.  Individuals with clinically-diagnosed depression get less relief from their symptoms.  The criteria for being diagnosed with major depressive disorder includes experiencing a series of symptoms like worthlessness, loss of joy, and fatigue for most of all day, every day, for two weeks. 

So, what is going on in our bodies and brains when we are grieving and depressed following a break-up?  In a recent study, researchers found women in their twenties and thirties who recently experienced a romantic relationship break-up, ruminating (a fancy word for thinking really deeply about something) about the loss of their lover was associated with altered brain activity in the cerebrum, anterior temporal cortex, insula, and pre-frontal cortex¹. 

Break-ups seriously mess with our brains, my friends.  And when our brains aren’t functioning properly, you better believe our bodies aren’t going to either.  It’s no wonder we can experience such severe symptoms when grieving these losses! When I asked my friend how her body physically responded to her recent break up, she said she experienced some incredible physical symptoms that are common for those who are grieving.  

“My body feels like it has just been hit by a bus, my eyes have been so puffy from crying and I feel as if my body hurts.  I have lost weight this week just because I have been so stressed that I think everything is just shedding off, I do not think that is healthy.”

I know from my own personal experience that when my long-term relationship ended, I had a very similar experience.  Eating was something that I couldn’t get myself to do.  I couldn’t even eat pizza (I know, what is wrong with me?!).  I felt empty and my body physically ached.   

As romantic relationships end and we are left to grieve our partners, there is incredible potential to experience some depressive symptoms.  While this may not be clinical depression, it is still important to check in with your heart and evaluate how you are doing.  If your depressive symptoms are lasting all day, every day, for more than two weeks, I would recommend getting in touch with a mental health professional.  Our brains are altered when we grieve, and this has the potential to lead to serious depression.  There can be serious pain in our brains.  

When All You Want is Chipotle...

Ok, so you and your significant other broke up, and you feel like you’re doing just fine without them.  Even better perhaps.  You are a strong, independent person who doesn’t need a relationship, am I right?!

And then it hits you, that craving for a chipotle burrito.  Your first instinct is to text your ex and say, “Hey let’s get Chipotle!” because that was always what you did together… and then you realize that you can’t go to Chipotle with them because you broke up.  Now, you’re stuck reliving your break-up and feeling sad, lonely, and even more hungry.

This, my friends, is what the grief experts call a secondary loss.  A secondary or accompanying loss can be defined as the losses that are triggered by the major, or primary, loss in your life (i.e., the loss of your ex)¹. They are the losses that result from the break-up, for instance the loss of someone to go to Chipotle with.  Secondary losses can add up and incredibly intensify your grief responses¹.  The feelings most commonly associated with these losses include depression, anger, emptiness, loneliness, frustration, shock, disbelief, helplessness, guilt, and a loss of self-confidence¹.  Yikes, not so fun!

Secondary losses are typically associated with grieving the death of a loved one, but as we established in the first blog post of this series, when we go through a romantic relationship break-up, we definitely grieve that loss.  Romantic love produces an attachment to that significant other, just like attachments in our other relationships².  In college in particular, these losses can greatly impact one’s academic performance, life satisfaction, and mental health².   Also, some researchers believe that, as young adults, we are even more vulnerable to these effects as a result of our developmental stage².  I guess we’re still developing our egos or something like that (not that we need any more of an ego… but that’s beside the point).  Anyways, I strongly believe that secondary losses contribute to this a lot. 

For example, in my past relationship, I spent a lot of time with my significant other in the basement of the library studying.  As soon as we broke up, I had an incredibly difficult time stepping in to that basement, as I knew I would relive so many memories of us there.   So, I had the primary loss of my ex, and the secondary loss of my favorite study space.  This could have even impacted my academic performance in some way, as I was limiting my options of study spaces (Just to be clear, my grades ended up being just fine, but still… you get the point).

This is such a common experience that I reached out to some sorority sisters of mine and asked about their break-up stories.  This is what one of my friends said in response:

“The worst part of breaking up with someone is losing your best friend, and losing someone who knows you probably better than anyone else in the world. It is still hard for me to not talk to him about things that happen to me daily, because he always seemed to know what to say. I valued his experience and wisdom because he was so much older than me, and I always turned to him when things got tough because I wanted to know what to do.”

When we go through a break-up, we are not only losing our boyfriend or girlfriend, but usually our best friend as well. We lose our go-to person to talk to, our friend to laugh with, our friend to get advice from, our friend to get chipotle with.  One suggestion is to simply make a list of these secondary losses in order to name and acknowledge them, and allow yourself to grieve the secondary losses too, in addition to the primary loss of your ex.  Another idea is to tackle these seemingly impossible to handle losses is to reach out a different friend.  Start making memories with other friends and pouring into other positive relationships.

So, next time you get that overwhelming urge for a Chipotle burrito and to call your ex, recognize that as a normal obstacle to overcome, and call a different friend instead.  I promise this challenge will get easier with time. 

The Break-up Blues

We’ve all been there.  The relationship you swear is going to last forever comes to a tragic end.  The one you just knew was the one doesn’t end up being your happily ever after.  Break-ups happen, and when they do, we are often left feeling empty, angry, lost, and a myriad of other mixed emotions.  I can speak from personal experience when I say that experiencing long-term relationship break-up was one of the hardest challenges I have faced in my twenty-one years of life.  When my relationship of almost two and a half years ended, I found myself feeling lost and broken, and slipped into a slight period of depression.  This series of emotions is what I like to call the break-up blues.

If you have gone through a serious breakup, whether it was recently or years ago, and these break-up blues sound all too familiar, know that you are not alone.  The end of a love relationship happens to be one of the two most reported losses among young adults (ages 18-25)¹.  In fact, roughly 74% of young adults have reported feeling depressed after their break up.  The break-up blues are real, people!

These break-up blues are so real that I decided to reach out to a good friend of mine and ask her about her most recent break up.  When asked about the feelings she experienced after her break-up, she noted very similar feelings:

“After we broke up, I felt like my life was in a downward spiral.  I didn’t know who I was without him, and when I didn’t have them, I felt like I didn’t know who I was anymore.  It felt like an integral part of who I was went missing all of a sudden.  Lost is the perfect way to put it.”

Young adulthood is a time of incredible self-exploration and personal growth.  Feeling lost and uncertain of who you are anymore after a break-up is an incredibly scary feeling, especially when it feels like this is the time of life to figure that out.  This frequently leads us to feeling depressed after our break ups!

According to the research, romantic relationship break-ups in young adulthood are often followed by incredible grief responses¹.  Sure, nobody actually died, but the loss of that relationship tends to leave us grieving.  In fact, the experience of grieving a death and the experience of grieving the end of a romantic relationship are similar, to a certain extent.  When grieving the loss of a partner, us young adults tend to recognize our guilt and feel angry about the loss.

Break-ups are hard.  They can even feel impossible.   It is OK to grieve the end of your relationships, in fact its normal.  Over the next couple of months, this blog is going to focus on helping you through the ups and downs and questions revolving around break ups.   Whether you have questions about how to handle complicated break ups, whether or not to get back together, or how to gain closure, this upcoming series of blog posts will provide you with research and insight to help you get over the break up blues!