CHEMISTRY BEHIND FALLING IN LOVE

Love of my life, you've hurt me

You've broken my heart
And now you leave me
Love of my life, can't you see?
Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know
What it means to me

Assalamualaikum w.b.t and very good morning to my lecturer ms Noraziah, the lyric
from the song that I had sang just now show that love is very meaningful for him between
someone that he loves. So, after doing weeks of research, I am here to share with you of the
chemistry behind falling in love. I will begin by explaining what love is , then I will talk
about the chemicals that are released during a short-term relationship and I will end on what
chemicals are released during a long-term relationship, so first, what is love according to
Oxford English dictionary, love is a feeling or disposition of deep affection or fondness for
someone, typically arising from a recognition of attractive qualities, from natural affinity, or
from sympathy and manifesting itself in concern for the other's welfare and pleasure in his or
her presence. When we think of love, we think of it as more of a recreational activity, we
come home from a long day at work, and we see our special person and it's kind of a fun
light-hearted thing however we are biologically designed to fall in love to reproduce, this
allows our species to grow. We can also fall in love subconsciously, you might not even
know that it's happening, but there are small muscular twitches that go on in your face when
you're communicating with someone, and you can be attracted to that also. Besides that, you
also can smell somebody and subconsciously you are being attracted to that. We also often
confuse the feelings of lust and love. According to Dr. Sherry Benton a practicing therapist
and founder of digital the mental health platform, Lust is a very temporary feeling solely
based on physical attraction these are the chemicals that are releasing your brain and they are
very temporary this isn't to say that lust can't turn into love, but it is not the same thing, so
now that I've explained what love is.
I will talk about the chemicals that are released during a short-term relationship
according to Peggy Gish and Martin Shapiro both of them are professors of human sexuality
at Fresno State, California they discuss the three main chemicals that are released during the
short-term relationship these chemicals are dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin. So now, I
will simply explain what these 3 chemicals are. Dopamine is the feeling of being on cloud
nine you kind of get that head brush and you also can get this feeling when you have a large
intake of sugar. Next one is noradrenaline, it's a lot like what it sounds like it's an adrenaline
rush, this is more of the physical symptoms of falling in love such as sweaty palms your heart
pounding or the butterflies in your stomach. Lastly, serotonin, it is present in many other
aspects of your life other than falling in love and it is the chemical of mood balance in the
aspect of falling in love serotonin is the reason you might have an obsession, or you might
lose sleep over someone.
Now, I will talk about what happens in your brain in long-term relationship.
According to the article "How Love Works" written by Lee Ann Obringer published in
February of 2005 she discusses that a short-term relationship lasts between two to three years
before it transitions into what we call a long-term relationship, what this means is that the
chemicals that I just talked about have worn off you've built a sort of immunity towards them
so now that high feeling or the butterflies in your stomach they're no longer there, however
you have a new chemical come into your brain which is oxytocin. Now oxytocin isn't only
present between significant others, but it is also present in a relationship between a mother
and her child oxytocin is released either when giving birth or breastfeeding and this is a bond
that a mother and the child has that is instantaneous and it can't be broken. Another type of
oxytocin is released because when you are in an active relationship with someone so you
might think about them all the time and have this sort of bond that you can't explain and it's
not by choice it's a chemical that is going on in your brain. According to Telegraph writer
Maria Fitzpatrick in August of 2014 there are many ways to bring back some of the
chemicals from your short-term relationship into your long-term relationship she suggests
that you take on some of life's new challenges like getting married having children buying a
house or finding your dream career and this can bring back some of those chemicals you may
have lost .So now that I've discussed what love is what happens during a short-term
relationship and what happens during a long-term relationship I hope you all understand me a
little bit better what is going on inside of you when you are falling in love so I want you to
know that “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved”. That’s all from me,
Thank you.