Your brain on love

By Dina Halaseh
Educational Psychologist

Last month’s topic was addiction and as weird as it sounds, addiction and love share many similarities. Both addicts and lovers share similar cognition, motivation and behaviour relating to their addictive subject or substance.

The way neural connections in a lover’s brain operate is very close and similar to that of an addict; the neural responses of both have so much in common. Plus, seeing your loved ones activates brain regions linked to craving drugs and other addictive substances. So when you hear someone say that they can’t live without a particular person or that they can’t stand being far away from them, you’ll know what’s going on. Their brains are actually treating the whole situation much like an addicted person would towards their addictive substances.

Love in the brain is linked to many hormones that help us feel connected, happy, relaxed, and positive. When I would tell my sister (who is a doctor) about how deeply in love I feel when I breastfeed my son, she would say, “Ahhh, hormones — biology’s way of making you take care of that baby!” It’s just amazing how biology makes sure that you love your children so you can take care of them. It’s absolutely brilliant!

I will not bore you by naming each hormone and chemical and their effect on our relationships. But I will share a few tips on how to boost them:

• Exercising

• Spending time with family and friends

• Hugging someone you love

• Watching a funny movie 

• Spending time laughing at silly jokes

• Listening to music 

So even though we are addicted to our loved ones, this addiction is definitely worth it! Enjoy living and loving!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine