Introduction
Whenever
someone makes a girlfriend or a boyfriend, it makes you wonder. Is it possible
to fall in love with just one glance? What circumstances make a highly
emotional feeling called “love”? Isn’t emotion also occupied by hormones made
in body? Can it be pheromone that makes people to fall in love? Which chemicals
work in process of love?
With
many questions bear in mind, love indeed is something that seems mysterious. Love
is one of the most important emotions for a human to have. And love is also one
of the most enjoyed emotions of a human. Love is something so complicated. At
the same time, love is something so natural to take place in one’s daily life.
I came up with scientific knowledges to know better about love and its process.
Definition
To
start with, it is necessary to define the word “love”. The word “love” has
several meanings. However, the word “love” we are going to talk about is
interpersonal love between a male and a female. The word “love” we’ll be
dealing with is defined as “a
very
strong
feeling
of affection
towards
someone
who
you
are
romantically
or
sexually
attracted
to”.
Furthermore, I’ll
define the word “hormone” since hormone is the main concept to explain the
process of love. A
hormone is
a
chemical,
usually
occurring
naturally
in
your
body,
that
makes
an
organ
of
your
body
do
something.
And indeed, hormone is capable of creating emotions we feel.
Stages
of Love
Helen Fisher, a leading expert in the topic of love, divides the experience
of love into three partly overlapping stages: lust, attraction, and attachment.
Lust is the feeling of sexual desire. Attraction determines which partner to
find attractive and pursue. And attachment involves sharing home, parental
duties, and mutual defense. Three distinct hormones, and also three behavioral
patterns, are associated with these three romantic styles.
ⅰ. Lust
At the first stage of love, hormones
called testosterone and estrogen participate. Those two hormones are the most influential
after all. Testosterone and estrogen make us to have good feeling toward the
other sex. Testosterone makes a man manly, and estrogen enables a woman to have
beautiful body. Also testosterone takes part in concentration, memorization,
and space perception. Estrogen takes part in numerous physiological functions
such as boosting metabolism, decreasing muscle tissues, adjusting menstruation
rhythm. Moreover it is quite surprising how similar testosterone and estrogen
looks.
The second stage of love is when you
become attracted to the partner. At this stage, we often say “You are fallen
love.” You become impossible to concentrate on other things beside your mate.
Moreover, you may suffer insomnia. In worst case, you may even lose your
appetite. At this stage, you start to stutter and your heart starts beating
faster in front of your lover.
These symptoms are caused since several
chemical compounds are actively made. Those chemical compounds made are called monoamine.
Norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine belongs to category of monoamine. Norepinephrine
and serotonin make you excited. And dopamine makes you feel happiness. Thus norepinephrine,
serotonin, dopamine are called compounds of love.
An anthropologist from Rutgers
University, Helen Fisher warns that there are some antidepressant drugs that
facilitate production of serotonin too much, patients can rather find trouble
having a romantic love. Helen Fisher says you are able to fall in love when
amount of serotonin in your body is relatively low.
ⅲ. Attachment
The third stage
of love is the stage of attachment. In this stage, beyond feeling the
attraction, you feel satisfaction of being together with your mate. In this
stage of love two hormones take an important role. Oxytocin and vasopressin are
those two hormones. Oxytocin and vasopressin are nanopeptide. Nanopeptide is a
compound of nine amino acids connected to each other.
Oxytocin
increases attachment between lovers. Because of its ability, oxytocin has
nickname called “compound of hug”. Also for female, oxytocin helps uterus
shrinks while delivery, and ables breast feeding. Moreover oxytocin manifestoes
maternal affection. Oxytocin in the blood increases regardless of sex, when
they feel orgasm. Oxytocin is made in neurons of hypothalamus then moves to axon
of pituitary gland and finally released to blood.
Another
attachment inducing hormone is vasopressin. Vasopressin also has a nickname
called “compound of monogamy”. Only three percent of mammals are capable of
instinct monogamy. Unfortunately human aren’t included in three percent,
sometimes making marriage complicated. Rats are kind of animal that keeps monogamy,
most of the results of the research on vasopressin are based on experiments on
rats. After a male rat has copulation, in order to protect its mate, the male
rat becomes really aggressive and they keep their attachment toward its mate.
Since amount of vasopressin in their brains are relatively high while those
actions of male are taken place, vasopressin is believed to take a vital role
in maintaining the attachment of a mate.
Since
vasopressin is made in the same place as oxytocin is made, two hormones must be
closely related. Even if we look at its chemical structure, only two of nine amino
acids differs each other. Furthermore endorphin (an anodyne that our body makes)
also is believed to be related in keeping the attachment.
ⅳ. Conclusion
It’s
really impressive that totally different hormones work in the three stages of
love. This means that our mental state can be read by compounds of chemical
made in our body. Although, current technologies are still far away from
reading our mental state accurately with compounds of chemical, there are
numerous possibilities of improvements.
By
understanding which compounds of chemical have effects on our emotions, we can
cure lots of mental diseases. Status quo, mental diseases aren’t easy ones to
deal with. Surgery is too dangerous, and drugs have many side effects. Not only
that, by understanding hormones we may be able to understand more about each
other. We can know how they feel, how they think, and about their ideas. By
stepping into one’s shoes (understanding each other) is the way that we can
truly solve problems. We can truly change the world.
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기