Love, relationships and the way you function in society is important because we are intricately connected to one another as social animals. We’re focusing on intimate relationships because this is where all of your neurological predisposition, your learned traits from your upbringing, your previous relationships, all alter the way you behave, interpret and express your love.
When considering neurotransmitters and biochemistry, love is an addiction. To anyone who has been in love, you know that there are different types, different strengths, but only one word for them all.
This phase is a lot of fun. Remember when you had butterflies in your stomach? You can’t get the person out of your head; they are incredibly attractive and you want to be with them more all the time.
Dopamine is released by the brain in response to things like cocaine, major successes in life and with sex. It’s so addicting that when rats are given the exclusive decision between water and dopamine, they will choose dopamine until they die of dehydration
This is attachment & commitment; you start thinking about moving in together and sharing your life on a regular basis. You’re getting to know your partner; you love their smell, their quirks, they still can do no wrong, (but you forgive them when they do), and you’re obsessed with how amazing they are.
Oxytocin is responsible for the feeling of connection to others. It also stimulates uterine contraction in labor and during orgasm, contractions in the seminiferous tubes in males during orgasm and does all kinds of things we’re still discovering.