How to Know If You Are in Love

Falling in love is a wonderful and crazy feeling that’s worth experiencing at least once in our lives. When you know you are falling in love, the way you look at the world and experience life can change in a moment. But the bigger question is how to know if you are in love? Well, find out here.

Falling in love is an experience worth living for. And the first time you fall in love, that’s a memory of a lifetime. But how to know if you are in love in the first place?

All of us have our own experiences in love, and every moment is as unique as the person who is falling in love.

Many believe in love at first sight while many others think the best kind of love is one where two friends understand each other and fall in love gradually. 

Now however you may fall in love, the feelings are all the same. And when you’re in love, you’ll just know!

When you fall in love with someone, you start to experience feelings and urges that are quite unexplainable and confusing.

Read these signs to know if you are in love. 

How to know if you are in love

Falling is love may be a single emotion, but that single emotion can cause so many hormonal, chemical and emotional changes, it’s almost unbelievable.

You’re definitely in love if you’re experiencing these emotions.

Butterflies in your stomach

For anyone who experiences falling in love it first sight, you can’t really help but experience butterflies in your stomach.

It’s a vague sensation of wanting to throw up and trying to get to the loo at the same time. 

Your stomach starts to perform intricate back flips and the insides of your stomach feel like they’re fluttering!

So why does this happen? Surprisingly, no one really knows why this even happens! But it just does.

Some scientists believe this is due to the release of adrenalin by your body because of the nervousness you experience when you fall in love at first sight.

Unexplained happiness

Do you find yourself kissing pillows, jumping up and down in excitement and joy for no apparent reason and giving your lover funny little pet names? You may just be in love. 

According to Helen Fisher, anthropologist from Rutgers University, when you fall in love, the levels of dopamine in the brain increase due to the increased blood flow to the regions where the receptors of dopamine are present. Dopamine, a pleasure chemical, makes you more excited, energetic and full of life.

The dopamine released in the brain make you feel sleepless, restless, full of happiness and make you think about your lover, a lot. Ever taken cocaine? That’s just like an intense burst of dopamine!

You can’t think of anyone else

When you’re in love, you can’t really think of anything else but your lover. They’d be tirelessly running around in your mind and you can’t work, remember things or focus on other interests. This is due to norepinephrine, a chemical compound that gets released along with dopamine, in the brain.

You get sexually attracted… a lot!

In a study conducted on several young couples madly in love, it was seen that the levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter found mostly in the intestinal tract, dropped dangerously low, something that’s experienced by people suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder.

But on the other hand, it was noticed that low serotonin levels in young couples increased the desire to have sex. Talk about evolution’s way of forcing the ritual of baby making while we’re completely attracted to each other! 

You get depressed easily

Do you get upset easily if the person you like upsets you in any manner? Well, you may be in love. While the drop in the serotonin level makes you more horny, it also makes you depressed and anxious!

Even the smallest of things can upset you or your lover, and both of you may end up spending a lot of time trying to please each other with little acts of love and affection. While each act of love increases the love and attraction, each disappointment makes you more vulnerable to pain and depression. 

How to know if you are in love

Falling in love with someone, and staying in love with someone are two completely different experiences. While most people believe it was love right from the beginning, falling in love actually begins with a note of lust and sexual excitement along with the flutter of love.

Falling in love is like a drug, and unfortunately, just like a drug, it doesn’t really last forever. While the levels of chemicals like dopamine and serotonin gradually come back to normal after a few months or years depending on the type of relationship, it’s up to the lovers to find ways to keep the excitement in love alive.

Every time you have a crush on someone, the whole game of chemistry in love starts firing the Bunsen burners and we’re back to square one all over again.

But evolution and the hormone oxytocin though, have found a way to make lovers seek commitment and make couples fall in love forever. It has created stages in love, and all these experiences are just one single stage in the process of falling in love.

So how to know if you are in love? You’re going to be experiencing every single emotion that’s been explained here. But is your love going to last forever? Well, that’s a whole different story!

Originally this article appeared in lovepanky.com