A beautiful feeling that drives people, forcing them to do crazy things. Because of him, much has happened in the history of mankind, up to the point that wars have unleashed between countries. It would seem that a completely unearthly feeling that makes people flit like butterflies exalts them to heaven, giving a feeling of happiness and extraordinary joy. But there was a look at love from the point of view of chemistry.
Helen Fisher proved that all the emotional processes occurring in the human body have a scientific explanation
To do this, Helen Fisher, an American scientist working in the anthropology industry, used a brain scanning technique. From the results of the experiments, she was able to find out which areas of the brain are responsible for the feeling of love. The chemistry of love, it turned out, lies in the fact that the brain produces a certain substance that makes a person feel an emotional upsurge, well-being and an increase in the level of arousal. This substance is called dopamine.
The scientific version gives an explanation of the love process, which consists of three stages.
The first stage can be called love or, otherwise, ordinary lust
At this time, we are driven by sex hormones - estrogen and testosterone, they affect our desires associated with the object of desire: the desire to see more often, for example.
We lose our appetite, sleep, when we see our beloved, we begin to get nervous, palms sweat, breathing quickens. From the point of view of science, the chemistry of love at this stage proceeds as follows - the hormones that are produced by the appearance of a lust object provoke the brain to produce substances of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. The first two make you worry, the last brings an incredible feeling of happiness.
Chocolate as a means of replenishing serotonin
It is interesting that serotonin can be found in small doses in products such as strawberries and chocolate - not without reason they say that they contain hormones of happiness. Surely almost everyone has such a girlfriend or boyfriend who cannot live a day without chocolate. They can be called "love addicts." Such people most often need exactly the feelings from the first meetings, which are the strongest, brightest and most memorable, which bring a high level of joy and pleasure in the form of dopamine.
The second step is attachment.
Thus, active and expressive love is replaced by something more calm and peaceful. The chemistry of love at this stage is in other hormones - in oxytocin and vasopressin.
The first hormone is very specific; his presence is "noticed" in the process of labor pains during childbirth, and he also actively stands out during orgasm. This hormone is responsible for fixing the mutual relationship between lovers, and the number of orgasms between them further strengthens this connection.
Vasopressin is a hormone that regulates monogamy. Experiments were conducted that proved that the artificially suppressed amount of the hormone in the body of a man leads to the fact that he quickly loses interest in the partner. That is, the fact that the strong sex runs after each skirt can be explained scientifically - perhaps they have not enough hormone vasopressin.
Such is the chemistry of love, the scientific view of it in the first two stages.
There is also another stage, which consists in choosing a partner
At a subconscious level, we strive to find a partner with whom productive and high-quality reproduction of offspring is possible. For this, the partner must be strong and healthy, with a strong immune system. Thanks to this stage, perfumes with pheromones gained popularity, since all these health data are transmitted through the smell. In mammals, this aroma helps to find the strongest male; in humans, this process occurs in a similar way, but this is not so seen in the human environment, since in addition to the smell that an individual possesses, a man or woman is guided by many factors in choosing his own couple. That's just in the name of love in stores became available "trick".
Perfumes with pheromones replace their own, not so powerful smell with a smell that is more acceptable and interesting for the object of adoration, promising that this will help to "pocket" this person for a long time.
How long does such love chemistry last?
Professor Fisher explained not only why love is chemistry, she also found out how long such love lasts on average. The substance dopamine is produced in the body from 18 months to 3 years. Hence the expression "love lasts no longer than three years." Is it worth it to be afraid of? On the contrary, it is worth fearing if feelings of love live longer than this period. The process of how the chemistry of love occurs is reasonably calculated by nature. If the hormone dopamine is produced longer than necessary to establish a strong bond between two people, under the influence of the hormone a person can begin to go crazy. People in love do not pay attention to what is happening around, if they are under the influence of the chemistry of love for a long time. You can neither fully work, nor focus on household chores. Bright passionate feelings should be replaced by a feeling of deep affection and confidence in a relationship with a partner. In order to again feel the full brightness of the sensations that occur during the development of dopamine, it is not necessary to run to a new girl or boyfriend. It is enough to arrange rare, but wonderful romantic moments with your partner. For example, suddenly call your beloved to a restaurant. Or arrange some romantic evening.
The novelty of sensations (maybe not so new, but already a little forgotten) provokes the development of dopamine and the consolidation of your relationship.
Negative effect
It does not matter which sciences underlie this feeling - physics or chemistry. Love can be felt as something strong, powerful, giving a positive charge of emotions. But with the same probability, love can affect a person negatively. Especially if the person to whom all human energy is directed does not reciprocate. In fact, the development of dopamine leads to the fact that you want to be with a person next to him, but he does not have such a process. The constant stimulation of sensations caused by the hormone is mixed with the understanding that the desired partner does not experience similar feelings for you.
Fisher herself came to the conclusion that love is a kind of drug addiction. Only this drug - the completely legal chemistry of the body - "love", and is produced by the body itself. All that is needed to develop this drug is to find a suitable partner who, through his actions, can trigger a response from the hormonal system.
That is the formula of love. Chemistry provides an explanation that is not yet fully accepted in society. It’s hard to believe that such a high feeling is just a reaction of chemical elements in the body. But the ability to feel love does not end there.
Scientists come to disappointing conclusions regarding children who are deprived of contact with their parents in their first year of life
Studies have been conducted that have shown that the first months of life are especially important in order for a person to have the ability to fully communicate, love, make friends and show the ability to other social connections. Neuropeptides are responsible for this - hormones that act as signaling substances in order to increase the concentration of chemical elements in contact with a loved one in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid, which make the body experience the joy and pleasure of communication. If this system was not initially established, even understanding with the mind how good a person is and how many wonderful things he has done for you will not be perceived at the level of a physiological reaction. About these hormones have already been mentioned, these are oxytocin and vasopressin. The experiment was conducted with the participation of eighteen children, who, unfortunately, were at a very young age in the orphanage, although then they ended up in happy families, as well as children who had been with their parents since birth.
What were the results
According to the results, it turned out that vasopressin is present in a much lower dose precisely in children from shelters. The following experiment was conducted on oxytocin. Measurements of this substance before the experiment showed that its level is approximately the same for both groups. In the process, the children had to play a computer game sitting first on their mother’s lap (native or adoptive), and then on the unfamiliar woman. In children who were sitting on their mother’s lap, oxytocin increased; when passing the game with a stranger, this did not happen. And for former orphans, oxytocin remained in the same amount in both the first and second cases. Such results gave scientists the opportunity to say that, apparently, the ability to rejoice that you are communicating with a person close to you is still formed precisely in the first months of life. And sadly, but children who are deprived of contact with their parents in the first months of their existence after birth can have mental and social problems. The chemistry of love lies not only in the fact that the body must develop a certain system of reactions, but also in the fact that the adjustment of this system should occur as early as possible, in the very initial stages of life.
No one can teach to love a person in the way that a mother can do.