Love on the Brain

I’ve heard people say that they were addicted to love. I’ve had friends that would fall in love over and over again, only to give up on the relationship after a brief amount of time to fall in love with someone else. I had thought people like this were silly. Their loves were so numerous there was no way that they got the chance to get to know the people that they “loved”, but nonetheless they were obsessed and possessive and would torture themselves while waiting for the cellphone to ring. How pathetic, I thought, until I listen to Dr. Lucy Brown’s lecture and explored her website (seeyourfeelings.com).

Suddenly instead of pity, I felt sympathy for not only the serial daters, but anyone who fell in love. This delusion seems to be completely out of their hands. They are so excited by these chemical reactions in their brains and feelings spreading throughout their bodies that they don’t have a chance to step outside of the situation and ask themselves if they really even know the person that they say they’re in love with.

This scientific aspect of love and desire only furthers the idea that it is so easy to be in love with love that it doesn’t even matter who the person you are in love with really is. This helps explain why people are so surprised when the person they are in a relationship with does something wrong, such as cheating, and why people are so ready to take that same person back time after time. It’s easy to fall into the trap of loving being in love, rather than loving the person you’re with.