Being in love is like a drug addiction Researchers concluded that falling in love is much like the sensation of feeling addicted to drugs with the release of euphoria, including brain chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline, and vasopressin.
Scientists have also found that love's effect on the brain can really make a person feel high. Cocaine, marijuana, heroin, MDMA, and alcohol all work in a similar way to romantic love, by boosting feel-good dopamine levels and activating the brain's reward system.
It doesn't take a matchmaker to see where this is going: Increasing levels of dopamine = euphoria and desire = greater attraction to the object of your affection. You're “high” on love, just as a drug addict is “high” on cocaine – and you're going to want more and more.
Studies have estimated the euphoric stage can last anywhere from six months to two years. Although a small portion of the population (approximately 15% to 30%) say they are still in love and that it still feels like the first six months—even after 10 or 15 years later.
When researchers examined the question, they found that intense feelings of romantic love affect the brain in the same way drugs like cocaine or powerful pain relievers do.
When you feel like something is lacking within you, you may crave someone. When you're emotionally all over the place on some level, you may crave someone. Feeding into a memory, the way a person made you feel or a desire that you possibly have been suppressing, that too can cause you to crave someone.
People in love often experience euphoria, cravings, dependency, withdrawal, and other behaviors associated with addiction. This happens, researchers explain, because the dopamine reward system in your brain is activated by romantic love, just as it's activated by substances and addictive behaviors.
Researchers concluded that falling in love is much like the sensation of feeling addicted to drugs with the release of euphoria, including brain chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline, and vasopressin.
Simply thinking about the object of your affections is enough to trigger dopamine release, making you feel excited and eager to do whatever it takes to see them. Then, when you actually do see them, your brain “rewards” you with more dopamine, which you experience as intense pleasure.
Agape — Selfless Love. Agape is the highest level of love to offer. It's given without any expectations of receiving anything in return. Offering Agape is a decision to spread love in any circumstances — including destructive situations.
“Falling in love is the best high you can get without breaking any laws.” This legal state of euphoria is precipitated by the surge in dopamine cited by Dr. Fisher. Often labeled a feel-good chemical, dopamine is the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and its pursuit.
intrusive or obsessive thoughts. shyness around the person. a tendency to focus only on their positive traits. physical symptoms like sweating, dizziness, a pounding heart, insomnia, and appetite changes.
Some of these behaviors include “mood swings, craving, obsession, compulsion, distortion of reality, emotional dependence, personality changes, risk-taking, and loss of self-control.”
"Intense passionate love uses the same system in the brain that gets activated when a person is addicted to drugs," said study co-author Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In other words, you start to crave the person you're in love with like a drug.
Romantic love can last a lifetime and lead to happier, healthier relationships. Romance does not have to fizzle out in long-term relationships and progress into a companionship/friendship-type love, a new study has found. Romantic love can last a lifetime and lead to happier, healthier relationships.
Although romantic love and drug addiction are similar in the early stages, they are different in subsequent stages, as the addictive characteristics of love gradually disappear as the romantic relationships progresses. However, the addictive characteristics are gradually magnified with repeated use of drugs of abuse.
Deep love allows you to remember the past and how hard it might've been, and then it allows you to feel grateful for what you have now. Deep love makes you feel lucky for finding it. Deep love is wanting to make someone better when you can't even begin to guess what's wrong.
Feeling in love is calming and satisfying as well as also being thrilling, scary, and exciting. It is unknown and it can be hard to be vulnerable. It feels like you can't wait to see the person, especially when they're feeling the same thing back.
Recent research suggests that romantic love can be literally addictive. Although the exact nature of the relationship between love and addiction has been described in inconsistent terms throughout the literature, we offer a framework that distinguishes between a narrow view and a broad view of love addiction.
Staying in a painful relationship out of fear of abandonment or loneliness is a sign of addiction, not love. Inability to commit to a relationship or staying involved with someone who is emotionally unavailable shows a fear of intimacy – a symptom of addiction. Trusting too much or too little are signs of addiction.
The Science Behind Love Addiction
Not only is there behavioral evidence that love can be addictive, but thanks to recent studies, we also have neurochemical and neuroimaging evidence to support the theory. Multiple feel-good chemicals are released when we are in love. These include dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.