WebMD Explores Falling In Love
A website more known for diagnosing bodily ailments gets touchy, feely.
We equate WebMD with helping us diagnose our headache (is it a brain tumor?) or whether we should call in sick or toughen up and drink a power shake.
So when we we stumbled upon a rather detailed feature called "Timeline of a Love Affair" we raised an eyebrow.
WebMD is soft and fuzzy now? And you think you know someone!
We're a sucker for these types of things because it's always fascinating to read what's going on biologically during the first pangs of a crush. (We're reluctant to call it "falling in love.")
Why do our appetites vanish, for example? And why is four hours of sleep just fine if we've spent it with someone tasty?
According to WebMD, and psychologist Dorothy Tennov, we can thank a handy little condition called "limerence" for these very common physiological changes.
Limerence, coined in the 1970s by Dorothy, is the first stage of love. On par with infatuation, a person in the throes of limerence becomes euphoric and obsessed. Their new fling can do no wrong. The term "rose-colored lenses" comes to mind.Yes, we've all been there and yes, the feeling can be addictive.
During limerence, dopamine (the feel good chemical) skyrockets. High dopamine is attributed to an increase in energy and a decrease in appetite. It's a temporary condition similar to being on cocaine or amphetamines, where we're temporarily blissful, footloose and fancy-free. While many of the symptoms are great, a crush that ends abruptly can cause the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction, and the crash of dopamine is what causes the tears and depression (like what we'd imagine bottoming out after a coke binge would be like).
A study in Italy also proved that being in love raises women's testosterone levels and lowers a man's. Interesting. Is this so both sexes can be on more of an even keel?
Scientists predict limerence is kaput by three years, and sometimes much sooner (much, much sooner as we can all attest).
If we're lucky, our crush then flattens into a nice, comfortable groove of commitment. While not as exciting as the roller coaster first stage, the feeling of comfortable companionship is also dominated by hormones.
While bonding, oxytocin, the brains trusting maternal hormone, is released. Oxytocin makes us crave spooning, breakfast bed, and maybe even marriage, pets and children.
In fact, oxytocin even had the ability to make non-monogamous rodents act monogamously in a study of voles.
Discussion
That oxytocin nonsense is useless also. In humans, oxytocin has only been shown to contract the uterus and aid a new mother in producing milk. Voles are small mammals whom only share a small fraction of genes with humans. Comparing voles and humans is (while interesting) not applicable.
Drew
If the "dopamine in your brain" was to "become quite elevated" you would have more problems than an obsessive crush (motor difficulties, Parkinson's, Huntington's). It is the interplay between an inconsistent reuptake of dopamine and serotonin, as well an imbalance of Glutamate/GABA (four totally different neurological pathways and structures). Nothing you can do about it, except wait it out, it will pass. Time solves all problems. It happens to us all:)
Drew
Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience
Neurotoxicologist
U of M
