yes it is indeed a problem and anyone could be a victim warn the experts we tell you moreits not uncommon to find people who move in and out of relationships with a speed and comfort level that can indeed leave others quite shocked barely do you hear them crying their heart out about breaking off with their partner than they start gushing about someone new they are involved with and if youre wondering how they do it so easily blame it on their addiction to loveyes according to experts more than just being in love with a person many people are in love or infatuated with the idea of romance to put it simply they are more in love with the idea of being in love than with the person they are involved with terming it as an addiction experts in fact say that in many cases this addiction can indeed turn out to be quite a serious problem one that has serious consequences on their love life and their ability to form longlasting relationships an addiction yes scientists have used this term to describe the condition because for these people a romantic rejection triggers the same effect on the brain as does kicking an addiction like drugs nicotine caffeine etc in medical terminology this condition is called limerence an involuntary cognitive and emotional state of intense romantic desire for another person and yes it definitely does exists says clinical psychologist and counsellor varkha chulani she adds that for those addicted to love the concept of being in love is more alluring than actually loving the other person they visualise conditions that do not exist perceive things that are not actually there and fall in love because of these wrong reasons unfortunately after some time the love begins to fade out she explains a study was recently conducted on 15 collegeaged volunteers 10 women and 5 men who had all recently experienced a breakup but were still in love with the person who had rejected them they found that the imagination of their former partners activate the victims brain region associated with addiction cravings control of emotions feelings of attachment and physical pain and distress biological anthropologist and author of the study helen e fisher of the rutgers university new jersy opines that romantic love is an addiction its a very powerfully wonderful addiction when things are going well and a perfectly horrible addiction when things are going poorly she says in the experiment participants were shown images of their former lovers and asked to recall memories of their time together as a comparison their brain activity was also measured when they looked at neutral images of acquaintances researchers found that when shown pictures of a former loved one the brain reacted in the ventral tegmental area the area associated with motivation and reward the scientists say the results provide insight into why it might be hard for some people to get over a break up and why