An 18-year-old Chinese girl who became so obsessed with her boyfriend that she tracked his every move and called him 100 times per day was eventually diagnosed with a condition called “love brain”.

Chinese outlet Yueniu News recently reported the case of Xiaoyu, an 18-year-old girl from Sichuan province who became so obsessed with her boyfriend that she made both their lives a living nightmare. The girl’s unsettling behavior began in her first year of university when she became romantically involved with a boy whose name has not been revealed to protect his privacy. According to Du Na, a doctor at The Fourth People’s Hospital of Chengdu, Xiaoyu quickly became unnaturally obsessed with her boyfriend, wanting to know his whereabouts at all times and freaking out when he didn’t immediately reply to her texts. Sounds like your average control freak behavior, but according to the doctor, Xiaoyu suffered from a rare mental disorder called “love brain”.

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“He was expected to reply to her messages immediately,” Dr. Du said, adding that one day Xiaoyu called her boyfriend more than 100 times. She became so angry when he didn’t answer that she smashed everything in their apartment. When the boy came home and saw the scene, he called the police, who arrived just as she threatened to jump from the balcony.

Xiaoyu was eventually restrained and then taken to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder colloquially known as “love brain”. Doctor Du Na said that people affected by a mild form of “love brain” can usually recover and lead a normal life by simply learning to control their emotions, but in severe cases such as Xiaoyu’s, medical help is required.

Although Dr. Du could not accurately identify the cause of Xiaoyu’s condition, he said that love brain is typically diagnosed in people who have not had a healthy relationship with their parents growing up.

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Xiaoyu’s story went viral on Chinese social media and sparked a heated debate on mental health and the stigma around it, as well as on the true cause of controlling behaviors in romantic relationships.

“Love brain sounds horrible,” one person commented on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

“I wonder if I have a love brain? I feel like I act like her,” someone else wrote.