Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey

This is the story of the author's life after the breakup of her marriage of twenty-five years. While she expected it would suck and be painful, the onslaught of physical symptoms proved to be a harrowing experience. This is her account of learning why heartbreak hurts how and as much as it does: how there is a social pain that is just as somatic. Her journey leads her to places such as an MDMA lab in the heart of cloudy Portland, Oregon (hey, that's where one of our locations is!), to divorce workshops, and natural spaces in attempt to find some form of healing to her grief. She discovers that loneliness is something our immune cells listen to. This book speaks to the effects of loneliness, loss and grief, and likewise the effects of having, forming, keeping, and sometimes losing connections.