Broken Heart Syndrome is the name for a sudden heart failure brought on by emotional trauma. Sound familiar? Yeah, we've all been there.

Yet ABC News reports the medical condition, although rare, is dangerous and very real.

Primary seen in postmenopausal women, Broken Heart Syndrome symptoms are similar to a heart attack, yet what is happening to the heart is something quite different.

Originally named takotsubo cardiomyopathy by the Japanese doctors who discovered it in the 1990s because of the disease's resemblance to an octopus trap or takotsubo when it showed up on a heart x-ray, 1 to 2 percent of patients suffering from a heart attack, are actually suffering from Broken Heart Syndrome.

A 2005 John Hopkins study determined a variety of stressors cause the disease. Most of the causes were negative, but not all. One patient in the study contracted Broken Heart Syndrome after being startled at a surprise birthday party.

"Emotional stress can precipitate severe, reversible left ventricular dysfunction in patients without coronary disease." wrote the John Hopkins researchers. "Exaggerated sympathetic stimulation is probably central to the cause of this syndrome."

"Exaggerated sympathetic stimulation" is the cause of Broken Heart Syndrome huh? That sounds about right.