In this country, when you have a broken heart in the literal sense, it is possible to ask your employer one day. It is unique in the world.
The sentence is serious. And it can leave much deeper traces than you think, until affecting the body itself. A sentimental break, whether in love or marital, can upset the emotional balance of a person and plunge the heart into a real storm. However, in France, no specific provision is planned to support employees crossing such an emotional shock. Elsewhere, on the other hand, suffering linked to love is recognized as a real health issue.
Each year, there are no less than 435,000 marital separations in France, whether divorces, PACS breaks or end of cohabitation. However, the consequences of these ruptures are not limited to tears or downwards. In some cases, separation can even cause symptoms comparable to those of a heart attack! This is what we nicknamed in a country thousands of kilometers from us the “broken heart syndrome”, a real physical distress triggered by an intense emotional stress.
This medical phenomenon has a name: “Tako-Tsubo” syndrome. He was discovered in the 1990s in Japan, where he was taken very seriously by the medical community. Concretely, it is a sudden and temporary dilation of the left ventricle of the heart, which swells and adopts an unusual shape, similar to that of a octopus trap. Besides, “tako-tsubo” literally means “octopus trap” in Japanese. This syndrome can occur as a result of a major emotional shock, such as a breakup, mourning or a particularly stressful event.
In the land of the rising sun, this syndrome can then give rise to leave. The broken heart then becomes a valid reason to stop, to treat yourself, to take the time to heal your wounds. This recognition is slowly starting to spread elsewhere. In the Philippines, a deputy recently proposed the establishment of a “broken heart leave”, three unpaid days to allow young people to cross a breakup with a minimum of support.
