interesting
information about the scientific aspects of falling in love. it's likened to being literally "crazy", driven by dopamine-enhanced desire, endorphin-induced euphoria, and (low) serotonin (levels)-generated obsessiveness.
excerpts of transcript:
... in early love, an extraordinarily potent chemical called dopamine sprays all over the brain .Dopamine's a neurotransmitter, a chemical that carries messages between brain cells.
It stimulates "desire and reward"-by triggering an intense rush of pleasure.
Research shows dopamine has the same effect on the brain as taking cocaine.
Those were the chemicals that are associated with elation, giddiness, euphoria, sleepless-ness, loss of appetite, focused attention, the kinds of
things that you feel so dramatically when you're in love.
Dopamine's job is to make us desire the feeling of "falling in love".
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A landmark experiment here in Pisa, Italy, showed that, in early love, nature drives us literally "crazy".
Dr Donatella Marazziti, a psychiatrist at the University of Pisa advertised for twenty couples who'd been in love for less than six months.
New lovers like these two spend as much as 85 percent of their day fantasizing about each other .
Dr Marazziti suspected lovers are held spellbound not just by dopamine, but by an-other powerful brain chemical, serotonin.
Serotonin helps carry messages between our brain cells .If our serotonin levels drop, we can become depressed. Or anxious. Or obsessive.
People with obsessive compulsive disorder have abnormally low levels of serotonin .
By analysing blood samples, Dr Marazitti discovered that serotonin levels of new lovers were equivalent to the low serotonin levels of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder patients.
Couples become, literally, "obsessed" by love.
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it seems one has no control over when, how, and with whom one falls in love. i suppose one who doesn't want to 'fall in love' can always endure 18 months in isolation since the 'crazy' effects supposedly takes that long to wear off.
oh wait- dopamine makes one want to fall in love.
too bad.
mm... does it mean when one, truly in love with one's partner, broke up, it will take 18 months to get over one's ex?
now,
that is really sad.
