 I once asked a seemingly confident man what his biggest insecurity or fear was. To my surprise, he answered, falling in love right now. He said he feared love because his number one priority was to maintain a concentrated mentality, focus to better himself academically, career-wise, and all together. You may say this is an excuse to not fall in love, but new research indicates that this man's reasoning might actually be accurate. A study was conducted by researcher Hank van Steenvergen along with colleagues from Lieden University and the University of Maryland on 43 participants who were in new relationships, meaning six months or less. They were asked to perform specific tasks, such as separating relevant and irrelevant information. The results? The participants' ability to concentrate and form tasks were not present. Steenvergen shared in his study, high levels of passionate love of individuals in the early stage of a romantic relationship are associated with reduced cognitive control. Also adding, it could be that the obsessive nature of passionate love imposes important constants on performing well in tasks that require self-control. Ray Padilla-Francor, author of the book Free Fall, a late-in-life love affair, fell extremely head over heels for her current mate. Regardless of how emotionally ecstatic she was, the new found love took a terrible toll on her health. She noted becoming light-headed, losing weight, not being able to fall asleep for days, or being able to concentrate or eat. I was happier than ever emotionally, even though I couldn't eat and felt shaky all the time, recalled Francor. Francor lost 15 pounds almost immediately and her friends were concerned. One of her friends recalls her saying during an outing at lunch, she's ordering everything on the menu and I won't have anything because I can't even swallow. Psychologist Dorothy Tenov calls this limerence, the obsessive, intrusive and all-consuming state we're in where we justify letting work, friends, responsibilities, even ourselves, slide so we can satisfy our overly enthusiastic need for our new partner. Jennifer Nelson of today.com says, you lose your concentration. You may think very clearly, but you can't think about anything but him or her. It's the dopamine that gives you that obsessive focus. Romantic love is just an obsession. You're focused, just not on work or your to-do list. Have you ever found yourself in love and incapable of concentrating on other responsibilities? Or would you say you have the capability of balancing out everything very well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. As always, if you like this video, be sure to subscribe to see the latest videos from Psych2Go. Thank you for watching.