People know that drinking and smoking can be addictive, but did you know that? Grief can be addictive too! After the death of family members, loved ones and friends, people always feel sad, and sometimes can not get out of the grief for a long time. Neuroscientists point out that the reason for this is not all because human beings value friendship, but also because the human brain can be “addicted” to such sadness and grief. The British “Daily Telegraph” June 28, citing researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the long-term pain of the death of a close person will make the brain pleasure center of the nerve with “addiction” similar response. The researchers called this feeling the “Helvetia effect”. Helvetia is a character in Dickens’ novel “The Great Expectation”, she never got out of the shadow of being abandoned by her fiancé on her wedding day, and despite her wealth, she wore a tattered wedding dress every day, full of revenge and refusing to start a new life. The researchers scanned the brains of 23 women whose sisters or mothers had died of cancer. Among these women, 12 recovered after normal trauma, while 11 found it difficult to come out of the shadows and felt “deep pain. The researchers showed the women photos of their deceased loved ones, while scanning their brains. Although all women showed activity in the part of the brain that deals with pain, only the vomeronasal nucleus became active in women who felt “deep pain. The nucleus accumbens is part of the brain’s pleasure feedback system and is filled with the pleasure-inducing chemical dopamine when stimulated. People who are addicted to drugs have a similar response in the nucleus accumbens when they use drugs. Mary Frances O’Connor, who led the study, believes the findings could help develop treatments to cope with grief.