If we were to believe Shakespeare, “Love is a smoke and is made with the fume of sighs”. A beating heart that seems to race at 100 km/h. A breath of air that you might, if not kill for, certainly consider acquiring under a knife (or is it just me?). The sweaty palms. The sudden overwhelming shyness. Each of these is a symptom of love, but what is this rather strange and complex feeling that seems to find a way to us at the most unexpected times?
According to American psychologist Geoffrey Potts, “Love is composed of a complex array of neurobiological responses that provides an important motivation to reproduce for the survival of a species”, but this doesn’t quite cover the “romantic” part of love, does it? Truth is, the whole concept of “love” can be reduced to only a handful of chemical substances that make us feel like we have “butterflies in our stomach”. Some say that science can’t be the answer to every question. But what do you know? After all, love can be explained by science.
As to all things in life, love has its bad and good sides. One of the best, I’d say, is that when one is in love, high levels of dopamine and a related hormone, norepinephrine, are released. These chemicals make us feel energetic, euphoric, they are the ones standing behind expressions such as “head over heels in love” or “heart eyes”. Produced by the hypothalamus, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when we do things that we enjoy- because it controls the brain’s reward and pleasure center - so spending time with a loved one will guarantee us happiness.
Additionally, studies have shown that being in love can also have pain-reducing qualities, meaning that you don’t feel that much pain when you are interacting with a loved one. For instance, a study conducted in 2010 looked at 15 adults who had been in romantic relationships for longer than 9 months and discovered that people reported lower levels of pain when they were looking at a partner’s photo. While experiencing moderate to high levels of thermal pain, the participants were asked to first look at a partner’s photo, then perform a distracting task or look at a random stranger’s photo. The study concluded that, by looking at a picture of a loved one, people had increased activity in several reward-processing regions in the brain, thus suggesting that love may reduce the level of pain we would normally experience.
As promised, there is also a downside to “love”. The release of these chemicals into our bodies can lead to decreased appetite and even insomnia, which is strongly related to the fact that attraction seems to lead to a reduction in serotonin - a hormone involved in appetite and mood. Speaking of mood, we might also feel anxious or uncomfortable while talking to someone we are attracted to. Even though dopamine is flooding our body, another of our body’s responses to the stress of love is producing norepinephrine, also known as noradrenaline - the same hormone your body releases when you’re in danger or you face a crisis. To sum it all up, your body releases the same substances, both when you’re in love and when you have to make a “fight or flight” decision. In other words, our brain is still a bit confused about whether being in love is dangerous or not.
All in all, for all you incurable romantics out there, I wish you good luck, and hopefully, you are right and there’s still some shred of actual “romanticism” left.
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