Many people spend part of their lives looking for someone to share it with, someone who believes in them that feeling of being a teenager in love and hormones and who makes them feel butterflies in their stomach. However, there are very few who manage to experience these sensations and that does not mean that we see couples less in love than those who do feel it.
Love is a very complex emotion described as a feeling of intense emotional and sexual attraction towards a person with whom you wish to share a life together. Empedocles identified it with the force that tends towards union, as opposed to the separation embodied in hatred.
But do we really know all the processes involved in being in love? At Psychology-Online, we want you to learn what happens to you every time you fall in love. How your body and mind react during this period according to sciencethat is to say: the chemistry of love.
What does falling in love produce biologically?
According to Chóliz, the act of falling in love It is nothing more than a phase (although considered the most intense) of romantic love. This first phase of loving relationships is initiated by the perception and feeling of pleasure that our senses collect as a result of the presence or thought of a specific person.
The experience of falling in love can be studied scientifically from a biological basis, where neurotransmitters and hormones are of great importance. It has been proven that, during falling in love, people undergo a series of changes in their body. The levels of hormones are altered, the neurotransmitter release, stress levels are modified. These changes in the body manifest themselves in a series of symptoms which are expressed externally.
Reactions experienced in falling in love
It is very common that people tend to act with similar attitudes when they fall in love, this is as a result of the biological changess what we experience when we fall in love. It is normally observed in the person in love:
- An intense desire for intimacy and the union with the loved one.
- Need of reciprocity.
- Fear to rejection.
- frequent thoughts about the individual.
- Loss of concentration.
- Increased physiological activity of the organism in the presence of the other person.
- Idealization of the individual the one you are in love with.
- Increased heart ratesweating, blood pressure.
- Intestinal peristaltic movements or better known as “butterflies in the stomach”.
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The neurochemistry of love
Neurotransmitters and hormones are the main causes of the sensations experienced when falling in love. Currently, the following chemical compounds have been found involved in love:
- Dopamine: It influences both sexual desire and the brain reward system, so its appearance allows us to associate certain stimuli. Thanks to it, we associate the presence of a person with pleasant sensations and feelings. So, when we see a loved person, our brain will automatically react by providing us with a feeling of happiness.
- Norepinephrine: which is associated with physiological responses (increased heart rate). Therefore, when this transmitter is released, the release of oxyctocin and dopamine is facilitated. Again, a situation of association would be created in the person. For example: when I see a person I like (stimulus), my heart rate accelerates (norepinephrine) and a pleasant sensation invades me (dopamine).
- Serotonin: It is a neurotransmitter which is associated with the regulation of mood, appetite, sleep and some other biological processes. The implication of the in the process of falling in love is present when a person in love reports that they are less hungry and sleepy.
- Cortisol: It has been observed that people in love considerably increase the level of cortisol, which is a hormone related to stress.
- Phenylethylamine: It is nothing more nor less than an enhancer. It is responsible for increasing the effects produced by dopamine and norepinephrine.
- sex hormones: In both men and women, sex hormones modulate dopamine activity in the brain. These hormones influence the process of falling in love in the part related to sexual desire, since thanks to them sexual characteristics and functions develop.
- The hormones of love: are the oxycytocin and the vasopressin. As a result of their great importance in this process of falling in love, we proceed to describe them in more detail in the following section.
The hormones of love
Love hormones are neither more nor less than the hormones known to everyone as oxycytocin and vasopressin. Both are synthesized in the hypothalamus. These hormones are considered responsible for the relational process of the attachment. In this article you will find that they exist. However, beyond the attachment that can occur in a baby towards its caregivers, adults can also develop it towards other adults. It could be said that it is the basis of any emotional relationship.
These two hormones produce in the person a feeling of well-being and relaxation when he is in the presence of the person with whom he shares said bond of attachment. That is why its influence on the process of love is considered so important.
On the other hand, they have other functions in our body, oxyctocin being a hormone necessary for childbirth and breastfeeding and vasopressin, a hormone necessary for vasoconstriction and fluid reabsorption by the kidneys.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Camacho-Arroyo, I. (2011). That love? is. As you see, 10-14.
- Figueroba, A. What is it to be in love? The chemistry of love: Oxytocin, dopamine and other hormones and neurotransmitters are the keys to falling in love.
- Montañés, MC, & Iñiguez, CG (2002). Social emotions: falling in love, jealousy, envy and empathy.