A beautiful feeling that drives people to do crazy things. Because of him, a lot happened in the history of mankind, up to the fact that wars were unleashed between countries. It would seem that a completely unearthly feeling that makes people flutter like butterflies, ex alts 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 emotional processes in the human body have a scientific explanation
To do this, Helen Fisher, an American scientist working in the field of anthropology, used a brain scan technique. Based on 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, is that the brain produces a certain substance that makes a person feel emotionally uplifted, well-being and increased levels of arousal. This isa substance called dopamine.
The scientific version explains the process of love, which consists of three stages.
The first stage can be called falling in 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 each other more often, for example.
We lose appetite, sleep, at the sight of a lover we begin to get nervous, palms sweat, breathing quickens. From the point of view of science, the chemistry of love at this stage occurs as follows - the hormones that are produced at the sight of an object of desire provoke the brain to produce the substances norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. The first two make you worry, the last one brings an incredible feeling of happiness.
Chocolate as a means of replenishing serotonin
Interestingly, serotonin can be found in small doses in foods such as strawberries and chocolate - not without reason they say that they contain hormones of happiness. Surely almost everyone has such a girlfriend or friend 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 stage can be called attachment
Thus, active and expressive love is replaced by something more calmand peaceful. The chemistry of love at this stage is in other hormones - oxytocin and vasopressin.
The first hormone is very specific; its presence is "noticed" during the labor contractions, and it is also actively released during orgasm. This hormone is responsible for cementing the mutual bond between lovers, and the number of orgasms between them further cements this bond.
Vasopressin is a hormone that regulates monogamy. Experiments were conducted that proved that an artificially suppressed amount of the hormone in a man's body leads to the fact that he quickly loses interest in his partner. That is, the fact that the stronger sex runs after every skirt can be explained from a scientific point of view - perhaps they do not have enough of the hormone vasopressin.
Such is the chemistry of love, the scientific view of it in the first two stages.
There is also another step, which is choosing a partner
On 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 he althy, with a strong immune system. Thanks to this stage, perfumes with pheromones gained popularity, since all these he alth data are transmitted through smell. In mammals, this fragrance helps to find the strongest male; in humans, this process occurs in a similar way, but this is not so noticeable in the human environment, since in addition to what kind of smell an individual has, a man or woman is guided by manyfactors in choosing your couple. That's just in the name of love in the stores became available "blende".
Perfume with pheromones replaces its own, not so powerful smell with a smell that is more acceptable and interesting for the object of adoration, promising that this will help "pocket" this person for a long time.
How long does this chemistry love last?
Professor Fischer not only explained 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? On the contrary, it is worth fearing if feelings of love live longer than this period. The process of how the chemistry of love happens is intelligently calculated by nature. If the hormone dopamine is produced longer than it takes 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 enough time. You will not be able to work fully or concentrate on household chores. Vivid passionate feelings should be replaced by a feeling of deep affection and confidence in a relationship with a partner. In order to feel again all the brightness of the sensations that occur during the production 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. Orarrange some romantic evening.
The novelty of sensations (maybe not so new, but already a little forgotten) provokes the production of dopamine and the consolidation of your relationship.
Negative effect
It doesn't matter what science underlies 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 the energy of a person is directed does not reciprocate. In fact, the production of dopamine leads to the fact that you want to be with a person next to you, but this process does not occur with him. The constant stimulation of the sensations caused by the hormone is mixed with the understanding that the desired partner does not have the same feelings for you.
Fischer herself came to the conclusion that love is a kind of drug addiction. Only this drug is a completely legal body chemistry - "love", and is produced by the body itself. All that is needed to produce this drug is to find a suitable partner who, through their actions, can cause a response of the hormonal system.
This is the formula of love. Chemistry provides an explanation that is not yet fully accepted in society. It is hard to believe that such a high feeling is just a reaction of chemical elements in the body. But the ability to feel love doesn't stop there.
Scientists come to disappointing conclusions regarding children who are deprived of contact with their parentsin the first year of life
Studies have been conducted that have shown that the first months of life are especially important for a person to have the ability to fully communicate, love, make friends and show the ability to other social connections in the future. Neuropeptides are responsible for this - hormones that act as signal substances so that upon contact with a loved one, the concentration of chemical elements in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid increases, which make the body experience the joy and pleasure of communication. If initially this system was not established, even the understanding by the mind of 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. These hormones have already been mentioned earlier, these are oxytocin and vasopressin. The experiment was conducted with the participation of eighteen children who, unfortunately, were at a very early age in an orphanage, although then they ended up in prosperous families, as well as children who were with their parents from birth.
What were the results
According to the results, it turned out that vasopressin is present in a significantly lower dose in children from shelters. The following experiment was carried out on oxytocin. Measurements of this substance before the experiment showed that its level is approximately the same in both groups. In the process, the children had to play a computer game while sitting first on the lap of their mother (native or adoptive), then at an unfamiliar woman. In children who sat on their mother's lap, the level of oxytocin increased; while playing the gamethis did not happen with an unfamiliar woman. And for the 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 in the fact that you communicate with a person close to you is still formed in the first months of life. And no matter how sad, but children deprived of contact with their parents in the first months of existence after birth, may have problems mentally and socially. 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 must occur as early as possible, in the very initial stages of life.
No one can teach you to love a person the way a mother can.
