CHINA TEENAGE GIRL WHO CALLED BOYFRIEND 100 TIMES A DAY DIAGNOSED WITH ‘LOVE BRAIN’ ATTRACTS HUGE ATTENTION ONLINE

Girl, 18, leaves home, starts university and becomes obsessed with new boyfriend
She demands constant attention and tries suicide

An 18-year-old girl in China who called her boyfriend more than 100 times a day has been diagnosed as suffering from "love brain".

The girl, nicknamed Xiaoyu, from Sichuan province in southwestern China, became so obsessed that it severely impacted her mental health and made her boyfriend's life a misery, Yueniu News reported.

Du Na, a doctor at The Fourth People's Hospital of Chengdu, said Xiaoyu's worrying behaviour began in her first year of university.

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Xiaoyu and her boyfriend developed an intimate relationship, but he soon felt uncomfortable and stifled because she became heavily dependent on him and needed him around all the time.

Not only did she badger him to constantly tell her his whereabouts, she also wanted him to return her texts at all hours of the day and night.

"He was expected to reply to her messages immediately," Du said.

In a viral video clip, Xiaoyu is seen repeatedly messaging her boyfriend to switch on his WeChat camera. He does not respond but she makes video calls to him anyway, which he ignores.

One day she called him more than 100 times but he did not answer. She became so upset and angry that she threw household objects and smashed them around the home.

The boyfriend called the police, who arrived just as she threatened to jump from a balcony. Xiaoyu went to hospital, where she was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, referred to colloquially as "love brain".

Du said that the condition might coexist with other mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.

Du did not disclose the cause of Xiaoyu's illness, but said it often occurred in people who had not had a healthy relationship with their parents during childhood.

She said people with a mild form of the condition, whose lives were not adversely affected, could recover on their own by learning to manage their emotions.

However, sufferers with extreme symptoms would need medical help.

At the time of writing, the news story had attracted 84,000 comments on Douyin.

"Isn't she just a control freak?" said one online observer.

"Love brain sounds horrible," another said.

"I wonder if I have a love brain? I feel like I act like her," a third person wrote.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, or you know someone who is, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org For a list of other nations' helplines, see this page.