What about a place for you to detox from those people in your life that represent the Mr (or Ms) Big type?

I remember a time when Mr Big was just a ballad sung by a big haired bloke who wanted to be with an equally big-haired, double-denim clad lover.

Then Mr Big happened to me.

On a balmy summer night in the middle of a vineyard.

For those playing at home, when I say "Mr Big" I'm referring to Carrie Bradshaw's – on-again, off-again, chase her around the world, leave her at the altar, then return to put a ring on her finger – lover from the Sex and the City franchise.

My version however kissed me for the first time a decade ago in block D2 of the Shiraz vines of a rather non-descript winery. I can still recall the exact moment I lost my heart, my head and my olfactory senses amidst a bouquet of Passion Pop, marshmallow Lip Smacker and Davidoff's Cool Water cologne.

Even before Mr Big, both the '80s band and the iconic '90s TV character, momentous heart wrenching tales of love were occupying the minds of generations who grew up in a time of black and white television, however matters of the heart weren't so ... black and white.

I heard a story about a young woman in the late '50s who was smitten with a man who took her dancing, brought her flowers and supported her on her quest to become a career woman.

Everything was coasting along nicely, life was peachy and every weekend they swayed along together to Doris Day's By the Light of the Silvery Moon, until an unexpected and uncomfortable bump appeared along their road to happiness.

He was ashamed while she hid their growing product of love from the world under tight corsets and a busy social life.

Fast forward nine months and this woman was lying in a hospital bed cradling a newborn surrounded by a surprised yet supportive family but the man, his charm and his love were long gone.

Today, even after everything she went through more than half a century ago, her face still lights up and her eyes sparkle whenever his name is whispered.

She went on to marry another, yet the only vinyl record she cannot bring herself to throw away is that EP by Ms Day.

This isn't a scene I found on the cutting room floor of a Mad Men editing suite, it was my grandmother's very own version of Mr Big.

While the Sex and the City and other pop cultural references may induce eye rolling or even cause you to murmur "I have a Mr/Ms Big in my life" too, it turns out there is now such a thing as a scientifically proven 'Mr Big Syndrome'.

While we may think he (or she) is that one great true love, that love represents a form of addiction that most of us at some point in our lives may have, and have to learn how to get over.

Anthropologist and relationship scientist Helen Fisher who conducted a recent study, titled Reward, Addiction and Emotion Regulation Systems Associated With Rejection In Love, drew the hypothesis that romantic love is like an addiction.

"My guess is that our modern addictions - nicotine, drugs, sex, gambling - are simply hijacking this ancient brain pathway that evolved millions of years ago, that evolved for romantic love. The brain system evolved to focus your energy on an individual and start the mating process," she wrote in the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Along with her team of researchers at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, Dr Fisher studied the brains of heartbroken participants and found that rejection by a great love ignites areas of grey matter in ways that are normally associated with addiction and craving.

"Nobody gets out of love alive," she added.

"You turn into a menace or a pest when you've been rejected. That's when people stalk or commit suicide. There's a very powerful brain system that has a dramatic effect on your entire life.

"Our poets, our songs, our novels, our sitcoms, our operas, our plays, have been discussing it forever and now we can confirm it with what we found in the brain."

Her advice for dealing with a soul shattering break-up or he (or she)-is-just-not-that-into you scenario?

"It really is an addiction; you have to treat it as an addiction," she said.

Cold turkey is her preferred scientific method - meaning enduring friendships, no emails, no phone calls, no SMS and Facebook stalking should be kept to a minimum.

"It's like trying to give up cigarettes and having one every afternoon. It's just not going to happen."

Robin Norwood, in her book Women Who Love Too Much, said love and addiction go hand in hand for some people.

“You may be predisposed, emotionally and biochemically to becoming addicted to drugs, alcohol and/or certain foods (particularly sugary ones),” she pointed out on her “Characteristics of Men and Women Who Love Too Much” check list.

So serious is love addiction there is also a movement called “LAA” - Love Addicts Anonymous. The group has been operating since 2004 and has a burgeoning online, supposedly non-denominational community of members who follow a 12-step program.

“We admitted we were powerless over love, romance, fantasies and relationships – that our lives had become unmanageable,” Step One attests.

The program also makes 12 promises. It is these promises which the love sick can invest in according to the program as at the end recovered addicts will be equipped with the tools necessary “to be able to tell differences between fantasies and reality”.

Let me know what you think about love addiction by joining in the conversation on my Facebook site My Jennaration.