Have you ever paused to consider how painful it sounds when we describe relationships? You have a crush on someone. He makes you weak in the knees. You love her to death. And when the relationship is over, you break up; you're left heart-broken, heartsick, and shattered over the loss.
The reason why love sounds so unpleasant is because it is. In fact, love and the loss of love can quite literally hurt.
When it comes to the science of love and pain, researchers are primarily preoccupied with understanding how people react to rejection. In 2003, for example, psychologists discovered that the parts of the brain that process physical pain are also involved in social pain, thus offering an explanation as to why it "hurts" when we break up with someone we love.
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