Starflower
The Chemistry of Falling in Love
Generally, we’re not so big on over-analysing falling in love. We do analyse relationships (yes, there is a difference), but not falling in love. It is what it is, call that our motto. Falling in love is strange and beautiful and we don’t need to know what chemicals cause it, because that is not very romantic. Nevertheless, we got curious, then fascinated, then overcame our bad relationship history with chemistry and then found out the following wonderful things you never knew about the chemistry of falling in love.
You might be familiar with the symptoms of falling in love – the heart-racing, sweating, energy rush, sleeplessness, loss of appetite and blushing. Also, the good old butterflies-in-stomach sensation. Science assures us that there are no actual butterflies involved, rather the chemicals dopamine, norepinephrine and phenylethylamine released by the brain. These are triggered by visual and other impulses tied to falling in love that make you focus on the person your are falling in love with to the exclusion of others.
At the early stages of a relationship, your serotonin levels are similar to those of an obsessive-compulsive, which explains a lot (like, the obsession and the compulsiveness) and doesn’t sound very romantic. At a later stage of the relationship, the chemical oxytocin facilitates bonding. It’s the same chemical that strengthens the relationship between mother and child – now that is romantic!
Oxytocin counteracts the effect of the norepinephrine and phenylethylamine, so passionate love fizzles out (boo!), but the romantic relationship grows (yay!) Feelgood chemicals endorphins also do their part, making you feel relaxed and happy in a relationship.
As fascinating as all that romantic chemical talk may be, it doesn’t quite beat the feeling of falling in love or being in a loving relationship, so we’ll file that as fascinating facts and go right back to thinking of love as a strange and beautiful thing.
