I hear you Dolfin, and I know you're still smarting from your recent break up. There are so many ways to feel hurt, and disappointments in matters of the heart are some of the sharpest pains we ever feel.

But, (you knew there was a "but" coming, huh?) for better understanding what I'm driving at here, let us consider that love is actually not an emotion, but an activity. I'm relegating "love" to verb status in this conversation. The attendant emotions are huge indeed, but are not by themselves "love."

As to control, there is some truth to what you say as to not beaing able to control it. But my experience is that what is uncontrollable about love is the wild fire nature of it's spreading when released.

My own ability to love is much enhanced by isolating it in my mind and heart as an activity which I choose, and one which has no expectation attached to it. Make no mistake, I enjoy being loved by another. We all do. But that longing for it, is not love itself. (remember, semantic nuance.) Lonliness, is an emotion, but love is something we "do." The control we have is in the choosing to do it or not, the choosing to cultivate it inside ourselves.

One of the things that challenges us too is maintaining the connection to our love in the midst of emotional upheaval and, in your case and mine, the brain chemistry fluctuations we experience as bipolar. It's tricky sometimes, but the more I focus on it the easier it gets to see it through the fog of my mental illness.

Dolfin, I'm really happy to see you on this thread. I won't get out the bucket here. lol.