“You know when you know.” When someone says it, you can tell they’re talking about love even though they don’t say how. Love, according to some, is caring about someone more than yourself. Some people maintain that it’s the knowledge that you’ve found your true love. In actuality, falling in love typically occurs so quickly that there is little time for reflection.
Fortunately, the idea of passionate love has captivated people for thousands of years. They’ve carried out research, developed theories, and authored books. This eliminates a lot of your work and implies that there are reliable methods for figuring out if you’re in love or just lustful.
Various Forms of Love
According to Robert Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, there are three main elements that make up love:
Closeness: In a romantic relationship, this refers to the intimate connection and sense of oneness between the two individuals.
Passion: Passion is a key component of romantic love, and it is the centre of many definitions. Romance, sexual activity, and physical attraction are all fueled by passion.
Choice/Dedication: This is the point at which you declare your love for someone and then resolve to stay in a committed relationship with them.
Which of the eight various varieties of love you might experience will depend on how strongly you feel each of the aforementioned components. The intensity of love varies depending on this intensity.
The eight categories of love identified by this theory are: fatuous love, companionate love, passionate love, empty love, liking, infatuation, and consummate love. You can only experience consummate love—also referred to as “true love”—when all three aspects of love are felt at once.
One kind of love isn’t exclusive to a partnership. In fact, you can discover that within the course of a single relationship, you experience several different types of love.
Infatuation versus Love
Psychologist, provided some clarification on the distinction between infatuation and love. According to psychologist, there are two kinds of love: companionate love and passionate love.
The ardent love is propelled by infatuation. This strong emotional state is centred on excitement, sexual desire, and deep longing. The kind of love you typically see in movies is passionate love.
Passionate love should ideally develop into companionate love. Less powerful emotions govern the attachment condition known as companionate love. Commitment, intimacy, and attachment are the foundations of companionate love, which is characterised by tenderness and sentiments of love for someone you can trust. Companionate love is a stable kind of love that has the capacity to grow over time, in contrast to passionate love, which often has a shorter shelf life and seldom lasts longer than two years.
In summary, you’re most likely infatuated if you’re overcome with attraction and eagerness. You might be in love if your first “butterflies” have developed into sentiments of tenderness, trust, and sincere concern for your partner’s well.
How to Recognise Love?
It feels all-consuming while you’re falling in love, and it really is. Strong chemicals are released by your brain when you’re in love, and these chemicals have an effect on your body, mind, and capacity to quit daydreaming about the person you love. Depending on the stage of love you’re in, these chemicals’ amounts and combinations can change.
a. A surge of oestrogen and testosterone is produced by lust.
b. Your levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are all affected by attraction.
c. Oxytocin and vasopressin are released in response to attachment.Even though they are closely related, the aforementioned qualities of love don’t usually happen at the same moment. If all three come together, you’re most likely in love.
Your brain changes as follows when you fall in love:
A portion of your brain shuts off. In fact, attraction and lust cause your brain’s prefrontal cortex—which aids in rational decision-making—to shut down. Since the ovaries and testes release oestrogen and testosterone, which are sex hormones that increase libido, lust doesn’t need reason to exist.
Serotonin production is reduced. Lower serotonin levels are linked to obsessive-compulsive behaviour and are thought to be the cause of the “I’m obsessed with you” feeling in the early stages of infatuation.
Your brain mixes potent chemicals together. When you fall in love, there are other factors at play besides your hyperactive sex hormones. Your brain’s hypothalamus releases all of that dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin and is in charge of controlling emotion. Dopamine causes you to feel happy and excited, vasopressin ignites the want to defend your mate, and oxytocin—also referred to as the “love hormone”—sets off your bonding impulses. All of these substances have a part in the positive effects of being in love, such as the feeling of being completely enamoured.
The incentive centre kicks in full force. You can see how that may increase when attraction and love mix. Brain scans have revealed that when someone views a photograph of someone they think exceptionally attractive, their major reward centres fire excessively.
When you fall in love, your body experiences certain changes that are influenced by the changes in your brain. No relaxation for the infatuated. It’s true that love—or more precisely, norepinephrine—can keep you up at night. It may also be a factor in diminished appetite and general restlessness.
Is this place hot? You may flush when you see your love interest because, according to a study, being around loved ones might cause your body temperature to rise. Another study that mapped the effects of emotion-triggered physiological sensations discovered that love raised total body activity.
Heart, stay motionless and beat. You may notice that your heart beats faster than usual when you’re first in love. Being in love can actually cause your heart rate to increase; this is not just a hallucination.
Breathe it in. Your favourite person’s aroma could be enticing to you. You may have been drawn to them in the first place by their aroma, or pheromones, as it turns out.
Congratulations if you’re in love. Longer life, a stronger heart, and less stress are all benefits of being in love. In addition, it’s difficult to surpass the thrill of a first romantic relationship.
Addiction to love’s many good effects is possible. Is love, though, genuinely addictive?
Is Love Addiction Potential?
As was previously said, obsessive thinking can be triggered by a combination of low serotonin and high dopamine levels; in fact, falling in love is an obsession. It’s normal to question if you’re dependent on your romantic partner.
Addiction and love share molecular similarities, and brain imaging has demonstrated that the brain activity of those with addiction is similar to that of those in love. For example, there appears to be greater activity in the nucleus accumbens during both love and cocaine addiction.
On the other hand, love is regarded as a healthy addiction. The next time you get the familiar surge of love sensations, don’t worry about getting help—just unwind and enjoy the physiological reaction!