Can people die of 'broken heart'?
By zandi458
@zandi458 (28102)
Malaysia
January 13, 2012 6:06am CST
I don't mean those who deliberately take their own life by committing suicide because of a failed love affair. I once had a neighbor who were in their 40s and when the wife passed away in a tragic road accident the husband was driven into deep sorrow. He always has the image of his deceased wife and talked endlessly about her. In the end he himself fell sick and hospitalized. Within a year of his wife passing he followed her to the the grave. The death of a spouse can have adverse impact on the living spouse, can push them into a purposeless existence which brings with it the hangover of misery. I am not sure whether his death was due to a broken heart or died of natural causes. It is better to leave a gap in a relationship, should anything happen to the other like a premature death, we won't be traumatized by the tragedy.
7 people like this
13 responses
@mythociate (21435)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
28 Dec 12
This is one reason G*d said 'It is not good for a human to be alone.' You need a distraction, because the conscious is constantly trying to hear/see something. When you don't have anything to keep watch of (like the ever-changing landscape of your spouse's emotion), you start paying attention to your bodily processes.
And you seek to simplify them so that you can understand them (because if you don't understand why your body is doing something, you fear that it's slowly 'wasting away' or something). By simplifying your processes like that however, you make the processes insufficient to fulfill your needs.
With the distraction of emotions your spouse provides (now 'taken care of' by books, radio, television, Internet and all sorts of new-fangled digital devices (and Firefox doesn't think "fangled" is a word 
)), your SUBconscious is given leave to handle the processes through to their completion.
)), your SUBconscious is given leave to handle the processes through to their completion.1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
13 Jan 12
A broken heart is not a medical condition but an emotional one. It is probably more accurate to describe it as a 'broken spirit' where, because of the loss of something very dear, one goes into a period of depression and loses the will to live.
I have known many people who, in old age, have, at some point, apparently 'given up'. Their will to live disappears and they simply die. Perhaps they, subconsciously, allow their bodies to simply stop working and no longer try to fight against the illnesses and disorders. They certainly die of "natural causes" and many people who care for the elderly will tell you that, once someone loses interest in life, they will die much sooner than those who keep a "fighting spirit" and a determination to be interested in what is going on around them.
If this depression or lack of interest is caused by the loss of a loved one, it is popularly called 'dying of a broken heart' but it's important to realise that this is really a metaphorical expression, not a medical description!
1 person likes this
@alottodo (3056)
• Australia
15 Jan 12
It happens quite often with couples that have been together for a long time when one goes the other follows some times the same year or so...I don't know if it is of a broken heart! but may be the one left behind he/her stop looking after themselves, no eating properly, not seen a doctor when sick, not mixing with friends they just isolate themselves and at the end the light goes out of their lives and the willingness to live is not there no more.
@luckygrey67 (765)
• Indonesia
13 Jan 12
Yeah, it was make my feel bad. Depressing could happen if the mental of person very low.
1 person likes this
@bubuth (1815)
• Philippines
27 Jan 12
Maybe he feel so alone that's why it happened and he want to go with her wife. That is only my though because that is what happened in the love stories that i watch in movies and televisions. It was a very sweet stories of old couple but i think in the age of 40 it is not too old but it was a sweet love story.
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
5 Feb 13
Well, you hear of people dying in a short time after their spouse all the time, and many times it can be just from natural causes, but a lot of times it is because they tend to give up. They often quit eating, do not want to sleep, and many times even want to be left alone. Personally I think especially if they are younger, people need to take time to get them help, and find ways to help them get out of this slump and live life again. Yes, it is traumatic when someone you love passes on, but this is not the end of the world. People just need to learn to move past it.
@luntian_grace (1373)
• Philippines
14 Jan 12
i don't think that people can die pf being broken hearted but people die in depression... which can leads to different type of complications...
@myfb2009 (8296)
• Malaysia
14 Jan 12
Hi Zandi, indeed having a serious depression can caused a person's life. That's why, it is important not to feels depress too much if our love life gone into trouble. In fact, i ever read many cases like this one, which makes the life of both partners becomes short and meaningless. Thinking negatively won't benefit any of us. That's why, it is always to think positively and open-minded as not to feels sorrow too much in case, if we ever encounter with this type of sorrow.
@pennywise25 (321)
• Mexico
14 Jan 12
LOL this reminds me of a scene of the movie Whismaster III in which a girl asks the devil (who had adopted a human form, actually he got the body of a hot tall and elegant blond hunk), well she asked him to "break her heart", and he literally made her heart explode killing her immediately.
@Riead68 (51)
• Malaysia
14 Jan 12
Actually love is a sweet gift from the GOD. World will be heaven for anyone of his/her loving one is beside him/her. its has a opposite effect also. So if anyone lost his loving one its a great pain for him/her. Someone can overcome it, someone can't. so i think it can be happen.
