Why Love IS Chemistry

Sorry for the delay, I've been kinda busy, but I digress. I’ll spare you a biology lecture (I honestly couldn’t do it) but to summarize the point that I’m getting at: our brain communicates all emotions to us through chemicals known as neurotransmitters. And the balance of these chemicals essentially rules our emotions. Whilst I’m sure that the chemicals are numerous, we’re only going to talk about 5.

I believe it was DOW chemical works that originally came up with the slogan “If love is a chemical reaction, than chemistry can make the world a more harmonious place.” Turns out they were right. When you “love someone” your nerve cells are actually bathed in high levels of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. Conversely, if you’re depressed, you’re experiencing very low levels of serotonin and dopamine. In a biological sense, serotonin and dopamine are the only things that make you happy. Lastly there is Norepinephrine and Epinephrine, which in high levels give your body that “fight or flight” feeling.

When too much or too little of these chemicals are in your body, some strange things can happen. Research shows that Schizophrenics have excessively high levels of dopamine, the same chemical responsible for happiness. Such is the case that people with anxiety tend to have very low levels of dopamine.