The demise of the long-term relationship of Paula Patton and Robin Thicke -- who have been together for more than 20 years -- has led us to wonder: what effect does fame have on relationships? Is it possible that being famous means the end of your relationship with your significant other?

Rumors abounded that the "Blurred Lines" singer started getting a big head when the aforementioned song became a hit... which, you would think, wouldn't make much sense, given that he's the son of two relatively famous people (Alan Thicke of Growing Pains fame, and soap opera star Gloria Loring). But, is it impossible? Definitely not.

Fame, unlike anything else out there, puts an undue amount of pressure on an individual. Fame forces otherwise "sane" individuals to behave in such a way that is solely conducive to their public image. This, alone, can create undue stress on a relationship.

Fame causes the famous person to have trust issues with people in their lives. Fame exposes people's true intentions -- whether good or bad. Even Albert Einstein -- genius physicist -- had an astute line about the perils of fame: "It is strange to be known so universally, and yet to be so lonely."

The effects of fame are so great, in fact, that psychologists have looked into the effects of it on its Sisyphean recipients. Citing such examples as Whitney Houston, River Phoenix, Michael Jackson, and Judy Garland, Dr. Donna Rockwell is one of the first psychologists to discuss the effects of fame on famous people. "Developmentally, the celebrity often goes through a process of: first loving, then hating fame; addiction; acceptance; and then adaptation (both positive and negative) to the fame experience. Becoming a celebrity alters the person's being-in-the-world. Once fame hits, with its growing sense of isolation, mistrust, and lack of personal privacy, the person develops a kind of character-splitting between the 'celebrity self' and the 'authentic self,' as a survival technique in the hyperkinetic and heady atmosphere associated with celebrity life," she writes.

In addition, according to Dr. Rockwell, the celebrity often feels like "an animal in a cage," because they have an all-new relationship with the "space" around them... and it's not always a positive relationship. Fame can either puff you up, or it can shrink you down. Fame can make you feel lonely, insecure, and not safe -- everything from your personal to your family space is violated. In addition, because people feel "familiar" with the celebrity, there's an inappropriate sense of closeness that further violates their personal space.

So, why do celebrities continue to court fame, despite the negative effects of it? Simply put: according to Dr. Rockwell, it's "the allure of wealth, access, preferential treatment, public adoration, and as one celebrity put it, 'membership in an exclusive club,' keeps the famous person stuck in the perpetual need to keep their fame machine churning."

In other words, as one celebrity put it -- the most addicting drug of them all is fame. But fame, like every other drug-induced high, can only last but for so long. "The relevant question becomes how can a celebrity survive fame? How can someone take a God-given talent, like Whitney's, or Michael's, or Judy's, rise to mega-stardom, and ride the merry-go-round of fame with health, grace, and perspective until it is time to finally get off?"

Clues to the answer lie in becoming part of something larger than oneself (countering fame's natural tendency toward narcissism), and dedicating all one's drives and ambitions into making a real difference, in a meaningful way, in the world. Through such determined commitment to using life to its fullest, as a show of gratitude for all the riches and rewards, and rooted in humanistic notions of self-responsibility, meaning, values, authenticity, and mindfulness, the celebrity has a fighting chance (Matt Damon and his H2O Africa Foundation, or rock star Bono and his many good works to end poverty and hunger, or actor and child advocate, Goldie Hawn and The Hawn Foundation, supporting mindfulness in early education, among others). As an older, wizened celebrity warned about the ephemeral nature of the fame experience:

"It's just so much the will-o'-the-wisp," he said, "and you can't build a house on that kind of stuff," writes Dr. Rockwell.

Dr. Rockwell went on to write several academic papers about this very phenomenon.

Only after accepting that "it comes with the territory" can the celebrity adaptively navigate fame's choppy waters. "Once you're famous you don't make eye contact or you keep walking ... and you just don't hear [people calling your name]," said one celebrity. Adaptive patterns can include reclusiveness, which gives rise in turn to mistrust and isolation. "I don't want to go out if I don't feel good about looking forward to meeting anybody or just being nice to people," another celebrity said.

Fame 101 is needed to teach people what's coming: the swell of people, the requests, the letters, the e-mails, the greetings on the street, the people in cars,the honking of the horns, the screaming of your name. A whole world comes to you that you have noidea is there. It just comes from nowhere. And it starts to build and build like a small tornado, and it's coming at you, and coming at you, and by the time it gets to you, it's huge and can sweep you off your feet and take you away and put you in a world that has no reality whatsoever because all the people are judging you on what you do for a living, not for who you are.

The individual is left to find his or her way through an unfamiliar, labyrinth-like world. From an initial desire to become successful, the celebrity experiences personal confusion and a loss of ownership of life in a depersonalizing "entitization" process, in which participants reported feeling like a thing rather than a person of unique character. Immediately upon entering the sphere of fame, relationships with "self" and "other" are profoundly affected. The public wants a piece of them, to touch them, to get an autograph, to have their picture taken with the star.

The experience of being famous is something for which no one is prepared. It is a world described as bizarre, surreal, scary, lonely, creepy, daunting,embarrassing, confusing, and invasive. The celebrity life is also described as providing flattery, warmth, ego gratification, adoration, unlimited access,enormous wealth, and membership in an exclusive club in which one is surrounded by other famous people.