6 Physiological Reasons You Are Having A Hard Time Moving On

So you find yourself with your heart in your hand and you don’t know where to turn.Bad break-ups can leave people reeling for months and even years if something isn’t done to intervene and set you back on the right track.If you find yourself struggling to get back on the straight and narrow after the loss of a relationship, remember that you weren’t born with this person on your hip and you will be able to move on eventually.Sometimes, it just takes a little time.Here are some strategies you can implement today to start getting over your ex once and for all.

# Our minds and bodies become physiologically linked to our relationship, and when we lose our partner, getting over it means waiting for our minds to return to their pre-relationship physiological state.

# Breakups and physical pain feel the same way

The feeling of getting punched in the face and breaking up with your long-term partner may not be exactly the same, but they’re a lot closer than you might imagine.

The brain sorts different kinds of pain into various priorities, according to how much danger or threat it believes the pain may possess.

Breakup pain is highly prioritized by the brain, meaning the same regions of the brain that are activated during intense physical pain are also activated during the emotional pain of a breakup.

# We’re wired for social connection, making breakup coping harder

Humans are social creatures, and there is no greater social relationship than your romantic partner. This is why we react so negatively when we lose our romantic partner, because our adult attachment style forces us to push them away or cling on even tighter.

We go into survival mode when our partner tries to break up with us, making the process several times more painful than it has to be.

# Social rejection makes our nervous system go haywire

Losing your romantic partner is social rejection of the highest order, and our brains have always been primed against avoiding any kind of social rejection.

According to one study, it was found that social rejection in the form of a break up leads to an intense response in the parasympathetic nervous system.

People who were broken up with felt literal pain in their hearts, with heart rates slowing down due to the intense inner pain.

# Love and drugs bring equal euphoria to the brain

Nothing gives you more feel-good hormones than love and intimacy, specifically making love with your romantic partner.

In fact, studies have found that the pleasure centers activated in the brain during sex wiwth a partner are the same ones activated when people take drugs.

So when we lose that sex we tend to go through reactionary withdrawal symptoms, similar to those experienced when drug addicts try to get clean.

# Emotional memories linger all around us

In the same way that our muscles have muscle memory with certain actions, our mind creates emotional memories that are associated with certain events, places, or activities.

The places where you and your partner used to hang out or the activities you once did together will now be sources of pain, because your emotional memories are activated every time you experience them again post-breakup.

# Natural biology makes women hurt more after breakups

There's a reason why women seem to mourn the end of a relationship much more than men, and it’s because women are much more invested into relationships than their male counterparts.

Biology forces women to be more selective with their chosen partner, meaning the loss of any partner feels like the loss of their soulmate.