4 Ways Falling In Love Is Changing Your Brain Chemistry

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Is your new love turning you into an obsessive, over the top crazy person ? You’re not alone.

When we fall in love, we often become someone completely different. We may dress different, change our social norms. If things get pretty serious, you can even feel different.

If things are going well, over time you may notice that your thoughts can go from cute to kind of creepy and a little scary.

Yes, we’re talking about the thoughts about what you would do if your lover ever…

No need to continue that sentence. I’m sure you know where this was going.

But why do we experience this phenomenon. Is it possible to not let our love change us? Do we have any control at all?

Our friends at CogniFit help us understand the science behind what happens when we find love.

Who is CogniFit?

A world leader in neuropsychological testing, brain training, and cognitive stimulation, for the past 20 years, CogniFit has been working to optimize brain function and train over 20 different cognitive skills.

Neuropsychologists at CogniFit share the importance of emotions on cognitive skills and how strong emotions such as love can affect the brain.

How does love mess with our heads ?

Estefanía Egea, a clinical psychologist at CogniFit, says “it is important to know the changes that love produces in our brain because this will ultimately modify our behavior.

When we are in love, we tend to spend more time with the person object of our affection, and we increase our intimacy.

Viewed in these terms, love is an evolutionary mechanism that favors the survival of our species.

Since love has such an important function, it is logical that it has the ability to modify various parts of our brain to achieve its purpose.

Mainly we could distinguish 4 consequences that love has on our brain.”

Love activates the brain’s pleasure system:

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans done to the nucleus accumbens, part of the brain’s pleasure center, have unveiled that this region lights up when people are in love. The surge of blood in this brain area happens when two people are attracted to each other. This suggests that blood flow increases in the reward circuit of the brain when people fall in love.

Love alters brain hormones:

Helen Fischer (1948) established that love has three stages lust, attraction, and attachment. During the lust stage, hormones, such as adrenaline and norepinephrine invade the brain to produce intense desire. Experts have studied the brain during this stage and noticed that the brain releases dopamine in response to love, especially lust, which in turn causes euphoria. These hormones, along with oxytocin and vasopressin; create feelings of well-being and security when in love.

Love makes the brain a little obsessive:

A common attribute of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) are lower levels of serotonin in the brain. Love has proven to lower levels of this neurotransmitter as well, creating similarities between the two. When people are in love, they may focus on the object of their affection and nothing else. It can also explain the famous saying “love is blind” since the person chooses to focus only on the good and doesn’t seem to notice their partner’s undesirable traits.

Love works just like a drug:

Seeing an attractive person, even before falling in love, activates areas of the brain related to painkillers. Olga Chelnokova, a psychologist at the University of Oslo, found that when given small amounts of morphine, men found women’s faces as more attractive. This suggests that the opioid system in the brain, responsible for controlling pain, reward and addictive behaviors is related to attractiveness and lust and, therefore; it can be primed to be involved in the process of being in love.

So there you have it. It’s not just you. We all are susceptible to the havoc love wrecks on our minds. You’re not crazy sis. It’s science.

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