LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS

Love comes in many different forms. The people you love are usually the people you feel most happy to be with, whom you like to spend the most time with. The people you couldn't bear to lose. And the people you care about the most. 

On the other hand, you can also still really love someone even if they treat you badly or make you feel sad. You can feel love in different ways – for your parents, your family, your friends, or for a pet, as well as for a partner.

There's no one-size-fits-all formula in relationships either. What works for one couple might not work for another.

Usually a relationship starts when two people fall in love. They may begin seeing each other on dates. In some cultures, it's accepted for a couple to live together and have a sexual relationship before entering into a marital bond. In some societies, couples get married before they start living together or have a family.

Unfortunately, not all relationships work. Some fail, and there can be varying reasons for relationships to fall apart.

WHAT IS LOVE? 

Love is a strong and pleasant emotion you feel towards someone. Loving someone isn’t the same as being in love with them. 

Image: Love Matters

Being in love is the way you might feel at the start of a relationship, when you only see the positive things about the other person and you walk around with your head in the clouds. The feeling can be so intense it actually hurts – especially of course if the person doesn’t feel the same way about you.

Over time this in-love feeling changes, and you have a deeper, steadier, tender, caring feeling for the other person – you love them.

To round it up, love develops in different stages. First comes the passion of sexual attraction, then the dreamy, overwhelming in-love stage, and finally the deeper attachment that develops over time and can last for years or a lifetime.

ARE YOU IN LOVE? 

When you’re in love, you think about the person you’re in love with all day. You think everything they do is wonderful. Being in love can make you feel on top of the world, but it can also make you nervous and edgy.

You get a strange, restless feeling when you see the person. You might even get stomach ache. You can’t help smiling. You don’t know what to say when you see them – or you talk too much because you’re trying to impress them. If all this sounds familiar, you’re probably in love!

A lot of research has been done on what happens to your brain when you're in love. Scientists have found out that when someone's in love, their body produces extra amounts of certain hormones. One of them is oxytocin, which is commonly known as the 'love hormone.'