What are the characteristics of love? And how can you tell if you’re in love with someone? Sure, most people know that they’re in love if they feel butterflies when the other person walks into the room, but there’s so much more to it than that. Some people might find that they only feel butterflies when they’re around their crush, but then when they’re not together, they’re not feeling very happy or like themselves. Love Is Blind And The Brain Is The Culprit
What Happens When We Fall In Love
When we fall in love, the brain becomes clouded by hormones that evoke obsessive thoughts about our new partner. We spend countless hours daydreaming about how to make them happy. Suddenly nothing else matters as much as being with them and winning their affections. Neuroscientists call this phenomenon swept away. It’s not just something that happens when people first fall in love or even exclusively to romantic relationships; it can happen with platonic love too—though sometimes not so intensely. For example, researchers have found that the neurotransmitter dopamine activates the same reward system in both cases—causing us to feel a high that can be addicting and difficult to live without over time (much like drugs). Love Is Blind And The Brain Is The Culprit
Being in love with someone can make you do crazy things
Being in love is amazing. You get a natural high from being loved and cherished by someone you adore. Being in love is also tough. You can sometimes feel alone in the wake of uncertainty and when things go wrong. Being loved can lead to fear as we don’t want to lose that sense of attachment and be truly alone. These natural highs and lows are what make us fall in love over and over again without knowing why. We have intense feelings for someone but they aren’t always reciprocated. Sometimes it takes just one look or touch from them to make our hearts skip a beat. What happens after this infatuation? We may ask ourselves: What does he/she see in me? Why am I so smitten with him/her? How come I don’t feel these same strong emotions for anyone else?
Natural highs and lows of being in love
When you first meet someone and feel that initial spark, you have to wonder whether it is true love or a natural high of some kind. One theory is that our brains release chemicals such as dopamine and adrenaline when we are infatuated with someone new. Dopamine makes us feel good and gives us a rush of energy; adrenaline causes our heart to race and provides a sense of exhilaration. They seem like the same thing at the time– because they can heighten those emotions– but if it really was love then why do those feelings go away after a few months? Why does it stop being about that person in particular? Part of what makes us fall for someone else so quickly could be how their brain chemistry impacts our own brain chemistry.
A new study published in Current Biology suggests that being in love lowers people’s ability to resist temptations
Previous research has found that in the first flush of romance, love chemicals in the brain called feel-good neurotransmitters make it harder for couples to focus on their long-term goals. When you’re in love, levels of dopamine rise by as much as 300%. These changes are associated with a reduced ability to make good decisions and control impulses. This latest study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure how well people could delay gratification while they were looking at pictures of their romantic partners or thinking about them – and found that thinking about a romantic partner produced more impulsive behavior than seeing them.
Q.&A.
What’s the difference between love and a mental illness? I feel like there is so much more to this than just the two. What about when you fall in love with someone because of how they look or who they are? It is always better to be mentally healthy than not, but in order for your relationship to grow it is important that both parties are on an equal playing field. If one person has a disorder such as bipolar disorder or anxiety disorder it can be difficult for them to give their partner enough attention and space.