The chemistry of love
It's very interesting how all our emotions and feelings can be attributed to chemicals acting on special nodes in the cells of our body. The nodes are commonly termed as receptors and will be referred to as such in this post.
Love, it seems, is nothing more than a bunch of really cool chemicals acting on their own special receptors.
A long time ago I read this article about how the "high" that people experience in the early stages of love could be attributed to the fact that the situation enabled the body to release it's own home-grown set of amphetamine-based transmitters. These will attach to the same receptors that other amphetamine-based chemicals link to. That's apparently the reason why the first rush of love puts a skip in one's step and makes one feel like nothing is impossible. That's amphetamine for you baby!
Unfortunately, similar to it's synthetic cousins, the natural compounds quickly saturate the receptors and therefore, after some time the receptors do not respond to the chemical. Hence the plateau you experience after some time into the relationship. "Where's the love gone", one is oft-times forced to question. Well, it went out with your receptor's increased tolerance to the special love chemicals.
If you break up, the chemicals dry up and the receptors get free again (this process takes some time). So "romance" CAN be experienced again after some time passes.
However, for those relationships that continue after the first high ends, there IS something to look forward to. The security that a long term relationship affords makes the brain release another class of chemicals, related to opiates (Morphine and derivatives). These chemicals, called endorphins give a nice warm secure high (in contrast to the exciting sharp high caused by the amphetamines). The good news? The receptors for endorphins are not as easy to saturate as the ones for amphetamines. So the high is a continuing one. Enjoy it if you last that long into the relationship :)
What all this also explains is the pain caused by break-ups, un-requited love, getting dumped etc. Your body is suddenly cut off from it's "fix" of feel-good chemicals. What you experience are withdrawal symptoms. The more your addiction, the worse your symptoms.
That brings me to another point - is love all about chemicals? Can we be fooled into believing that something is true love just because the chemicals make us feel so? Isn't there any aspect of magic in love? Isn't there just that one special person who will rock our world?
Damn, being a romantic at heart, and a true believer in true love, that's a really sobering and unromantic thought!
On the up-side, you can view break-ups in a new light, and realize that it's not the end of the world as you know it. It's just your body begging for the feel-good chemicals it was used to, and nothing more. The good stuff can happen to you again, and there is really no reason to feel like it's not going to!
Love, it seems, is nothing more than a bunch of really cool chemicals acting on their own special receptors.
A long time ago I read this article about how the "high" that people experience in the early stages of love could be attributed to the fact that the situation enabled the body to release it's own home-grown set of amphetamine-based transmitters. These will attach to the same receptors that other amphetamine-based chemicals link to. That's apparently the reason why the first rush of love puts a skip in one's step and makes one feel like nothing is impossible. That's amphetamine for you baby!
Unfortunately, similar to it's synthetic cousins, the natural compounds quickly saturate the receptors and therefore, after some time the receptors do not respond to the chemical. Hence the plateau you experience after some time into the relationship. "Where's the love gone", one is oft-times forced to question. Well, it went out with your receptor's increased tolerance to the special love chemicals.
If you break up, the chemicals dry up and the receptors get free again (this process takes some time). So "romance" CAN be experienced again after some time passes.
However, for those relationships that continue after the first high ends, there IS something to look forward to. The security that a long term relationship affords makes the brain release another class of chemicals, related to opiates (Morphine and derivatives). These chemicals, called endorphins give a nice warm secure high (in contrast to the exciting sharp high caused by the amphetamines). The good news? The receptors for endorphins are not as easy to saturate as the ones for amphetamines. So the high is a continuing one. Enjoy it if you last that long into the relationship :)
What all this also explains is the pain caused by break-ups, un-requited love, getting dumped etc. Your body is suddenly cut off from it's "fix" of feel-good chemicals. What you experience are withdrawal symptoms. The more your addiction, the worse your symptoms.
That brings me to another point - is love all about chemicals? Can we be fooled into believing that something is true love just because the chemicals make us feel so? Isn't there any aspect of magic in love? Isn't there just that one special person who will rock our world?
Damn, being a romantic at heart, and a true believer in true love, that's a really sobering and unromantic thought!
On the up-side, you can view break-ups in a new light, and realize that it's not the end of the world as you know it. It's just your body begging for the feel-good chemicals it was used to, and nothing more. The good stuff can happen to you again, and there is really no reason to feel like it's not going to!
posted by the grim sleeper at 2:42 AM
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