Addicted to Love

Is it possible for a person to be addicted to love?

You betcha'!

I'm sure we all know at least one person in our social circles who is addicted to love. They aren't hard to identify. They are the ones who always have a boyfriend or girlfriend, and typically their relationships are short-lived. Then they are on to the next romantic partner. They love being in love.

Can you blame them? No. Who doesn't love being in love? It's one of if not the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Married couples fear losing that in-love feeling. Studies show that the typical in-love feeling lasts only for about two years maximum. After that, the love levels get dialed back down to normal as the couple slogs through the daily grind together.

Low dopamine levels are the key factor behind most addictions. If you look at all the different drugs out there, including the nicotine in cigarettes, you will find that their primary function is to flood the brain with dopamine. Those euphoric feelings can be highly addictive. Once they're gone, the person gets desperate for their next fix. So it stands to reason that some people get addicted to crack, others get addicted to cigarettes, another gets addicted to alcohol, and a large majority of us get addicted to love.

Okay, enough of the technical mumbo jumbo. What in the heck does any of this mean to you?

When you are in love, your brain gets flooded with dopamine, a naturally occurring feel-good chemical. For two years, you could be jacked up on higher than average levels of dopamine. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Once your dopamine levels taper off, you may find yourself not really liking your choice of a partner. This is when those so-called cute habits your partner exhibits become annoying flaws. It's possible that while you were high on dopamine, you overlooked a lot of compatibility issues and personality flaws that you normally would never tolerate in a partner.