Is love a drug?

There has been a lot of articles lately which tell us about love being nothing but a chemical reaction. For example, Boyle’s (2010) article states that being romantically in love causes the same effects in the brain than using hard drugs such as cocaine and very strong painkillers. In her article, Boyle comments on this idea saying that love and this type of drugs activate the same area of the brain: the one that makes people feel good. In other words, according to this article, when we are madly in love it’s like being under the influence of a really powerful substance which makes feel like we are “up in the sky”. That is why people become way too addicted to hard drugs (or to pills that cause a similar effect).

Is it something we can relate to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”? Absolutely! When Puck mistakenly spreads “the flower juice” on Lysander’s eyes instead of Demetrius’, Lysander desperately falls in love with Helena, but not because he was in love with her from a long a time ago in a secret way or anything like that : it was the fact that he had been “drugged”. Probably, this chemicals—as well as drug’s components—triggered something inside his brain that made him feel as if he were up in the sky when he was with Helena. That way, Lysander totally forgot about Hermia, his allegedly “real love” before this kind of “spell”.

HELENA. Do not say so, Lysander, say not so.

What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?

Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.

LYSANDER. Content with Hermia? No; I do repent

The tedious minutes I with her have spent.

Not Hermia, but Helena I love.

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

The will of man is by his reason swayed,

And reason says you are the worthier maid. (85)

Now, it seems like, out of nowhere, Lysander needs Helena. She has become his addiction. This reminds me of an ELO’s song called “Need Her Love”, which is not dedicated to drugs but to a woman. During the whole song, this person says repeatedly that he needs her love since she entered his life; that is, he has become dependent on her since they first met. As he needs her all the time to be OK, when she is away, he feels horrible:

She gives me love that I could never hope to have,

She tells me that she needs me, she tells me that she's glad,

And if she goes away, I'm like someone who's left out in the rain,

I need, I need her, I need her love.

                                                                (Lynne)

Also, he is willing to do things that help him be with her as fast as possible:

She came in from the west, a summer breeze I couldn't rest,

I had to take a fast train, to be there by her side,

She made me feel so good, she made it like it should be all the time

I need, I need her, I need her love.

                                                                                                (Lynne)

So, is this “effect” love provokes similar to the dependency people develop on drugs? Is it because we feel fine when doing drugs and when being in love? I encourage you to listen to the song and comment if you agree or disagree with the ideas I presented here.

I am looking forward to read your comments!

Best of luck,

M. Francisca Miranda

SOURCES:

Boyles, Salynn. Romantic Love Affects Your Brain Like a Drug. WebMD, 13 Oct. 2010. Web. 9 Oct. 2014.

Lynne, Jeff. “Need Her Love”. Discovery. Jet, 1979. CD.

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.