How can we describe what love is ? Surely there are as many ways to do it as people in the world have been in love and it could have to do with more literary or metaphorical issues that are difficult to explain. However, love can be explained from biological processes based on the chemical reactions that take place inside our bodies when we are close to that person that causes sparks to fly.
In that sense, there is a specific cocktail of seven chemicals whose alterations make us feel that explosive sensation :
1. Dopamine. Dopamine is the drug of love, as it is the neurotransmitter primarily responsible for making us feel pleasure. In addition to falling in love, it intervenes in drug or gambling addiction processes, since it generates a feeling of reward: it makes us euphoric and then makes us feel like it, making us want to repeat the behaviors that had made us feel so good.
2. Norepinephrine and adrenaline. Norepinephrine causes our adrenaline to rise, thus increasing the rate of our heartbeats, raising our blood pressure and we end up turning red like tomatoes and having that feeling of nervousness that we feel when we like someone. It is also related to losing sleep and appetite when we fall in love. And it is what leads us to do even reckless things “for love.”
3. Phenylethylamine. This neurotransmitter is from the amphetamine family and one of those that end up causing us the most intense feelings of falling in love. It makes us as happy as when we eat chocolate, since it is the same substance that our body releases in that case.
4. Oxytocin. Oxytocin is the hormone of orgasm, since it is released mainly during this process, but also motivated by physical contact or the idea of having it: hugs, caresses, kisses …. It is also present in other processes such as childbirth or breastfeeding and it is that, in general, it is what motivates the bonds to be reinforced.
5. Endorphins. Endorphins make us feel happy when we contemplate the loved one despite the fact that everything that is happening around is a hecatomb. They are the hormones of happiness and love par excellence!
6. Acetylone, endovalium and gonadotropins. Acetylone is secreted by any animal that is in a state of heat and is what drives us to feel a desire to have sex with the person we are attracted to. Along with endovalium and gonadotropins, they are the most effective mixture in the field of sex and desire.
7. Serotonin. It is the hormone of happiness and, like dopamine, it pushes us to instinctively seek the sensations that love provokes in us and makes us feel so good. Almost like a drug does.
