【Sky News】 Breakups, divorce, and heartbreak: The science behind

Breakups, divorce, and heartbreak: The science behind what happens to your brain and your body

Breakups are not much fun.

Whether it's your first time through it or an unfortunate familiarity, there are few more agonising gut punches.

Doubts and insecurities aplenty; wondering where, how and why things changed; and like an agonising Lionesses World Cup run, an overwhelming sense of "what if".

Being a "science and tech journalist" has given me a fresh perspective on how it can impact us physically.

Where's that headache come from? What about a sudden lack of energy? And why does eating anything, even a normal favourite, feel like an I'm A Celebrity challenge?

For when pictures of wistful poetry on Instagram just don't cut it, it turns out science has some answers.

The holy trinity

As neuroscientist Dr Lucy Brown puts it(explains), "we're all miserable when we've been dumped" - and there's a potent chemical cocktail that helps explain why.

Serotonin is the brain chemical associated with happiness, oxytocin with bonding, and dopamine gets pumped out whenever your mind's reward system kicks in.

No surprise then that you feel good when that holy trinity is high and rough when it's low.

The key chemical is dopamine: the ultimate natural drug.