i have a question about emotions.

[dextersmith]

i told someone i thought i was in love today and got this as a response.....what do people mean when you ask what if feels like to be in love and they answer with "when your in love you'll know" or "you'll figure it out" since love is a biological process that injects certain chemicals into your body when in love why do people always give this vague response? surely they can spot the signs of being in love since it must have signs or symptoms as all biological processes do.

i ask cause i met this girl today and the minute i looked upon her face.....it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. like i was finally happy.
this naturally both amazed and scared me and i'm still not sure what to think of it. what do you guys think?

You were in lust or infatuated. You can't love from just looking upon her face.

[Independent voter]

It makes me feel stupid, and that I don't care I'm stupid.

[Deleted]

You were in lust or infatuated. You can't love from just looking upon her face.

Love at first sight is a thing!

[dextersmith]

Say what you want about 'love' being only a chemical response, but I think there's more to it. Particularly with mothers and their children.

People are becoming too much like programmed robots.

I call bogus, there are no such things as children lol.

[Bloodedsoul]

How to tell when you're in love is a tough one. I've met women that gave me that butterfly feeling in my stomache. I've met some that make me go weak in the knees. But when I met my wife it was so much more. I'm a pretty nice guy on the outside, I smile a lot, and do whatever I can to hide what's deep inside( I've found people are more trusting of a smile, even if it's fake). I almost always feel angry, and it's a fight somedays not to just lash out at someone who made the mistake of looking in my direction. But when I'm with my wife, everything in me calms down, I am truely happy. The first time we met when I looked into her eyes she didn't look away(most people do) she stared right back, no fear, no uncertanty, no anger. To this day she is still the only woman I know who makes me feel like this. I've had a lot of horrible experiences with women, but when I'm with her it's like none of it ever happened. I guess long story short, that silly saying you just know, really is you just know.

[dextersmith]

Love at first sight is a thing!

I thought this with an ex but realized later that I was really falling for her as we dated.

Compromise with erection at first sight?

[Anium]

Bahahhaha what is this thread man...

[chaotus]

Attempt to Make It Sound Horrifically Clean and Unemotional
Love is a chemical response to stimuli that occur in a very specific pattern that only applies to your brain's precise makeup and design.

Poetic way but someone else can maybe do better..
Love is when electromagnetic waves traveling at light speed encounter millions of cells within your eye cavity causing a pattern to emerge. At the same time environmental factors combine. Hundreds of receptors in your nose create electrical and chemical signals. Your taste buds sample the air and send thousands of signals at once to your neurons. Your blood vessels contract and your skin pull extra blood in. Your breathing quickens, your heart rate gets faster and your stomach makes extra acid as if you just ate a big meal. Billions of neurons link up all this information in seconds and create a chain of links that forms a memory of a person you love. All of these processes can fall apart, not happen and create a completely different experience for you. But in that one perfect moment, it all comes to together and you find someone you love. Billions of electrical signals and chemical receptors working together in a pattern that only exists in one place in the entire universe and will never happen exactly the same way again. That is love.

[dextersmith]

Short answer: it's a metaphysical and philosophical problem.

Mechanical responses like this suggest people have never known love. It's not just chemicals being pumped out; there's no unlove pill to cancel it out.

- - - Updated - - -

Attempt to Make It Sound Horrifically Clean and Unemotional
Love is a chemical response to stimuli that occur in a very specific pattern that only applies to your brain's precise makeup and design.

Poetic way but someone else can maybe do better..
Love is when electromagnetic waves traveling at light speed encounter millions of cells within your eye cavity causing a pattern to emerge. At the same time environmental factors combine. Hundreds of receptors in your nose create electrical and chemical signals. Your taste buds sample the air and send thousands of signals at once to your neurons. Your blood vessels contract and your skin pull extra blood in. Your breathing quickens, your heart rate gets faster and your stomach makes extra acid as if you just ate a big meal. Billions of neurons link up all this information in seconds and create a chain of links that forms a memory of a person you love. All of these processes can fall apart, not happen and create a completely different experience for you. But in that one perfect moment, it all comes to together and you find someone you love. Billions of electrical signals and chemical receptors working together in a pattern that only exists in one place in the entire universe and will never happen exactly the same way again. That is love.

So it has no bearing on genitals, awesome!

[zubaja]

What is love?

this had to be done. Not even sorry.

[dextersmith]

"Love" has nothing to do with chemicals and everything to do with your soul. That's my opinion. I just prefer not to just "science away" something as important as love. Yes, I am fully aware that the brain releases chemicals that blah blah blah.... STFU! I truly and honestly am fascinated by those things but some things are better left unsaid. Like most of the things I say on these forums.

Right, what causes the symptoms of chemical release?

[Christan]

love may start at just chemical stimuli but all that accounts for is physical attraction, infatuation at first sight is more common(and infatuation in general) than actual love
que's moulin rouge music... love is a...splendid thing "all we need is love"

but really...love grows from infatuation, if your bodies appeal to each other, your smells(not B.O.) sight, voice etc.
love grows from that when counting things like consciousness do you agree to the same things, do compromises you make have to be small stuff, are each of you willing to compromise for the other, do you...get along with each other, as much as your best friend(well better ofc)

love at first sight is possible, though so exquisitely rare, people misrepresent love at first sight with finding your soul mate(true love at first sight) or infatuation(wants to/a bone)

Right, what causes the symptoms of chemical release?

outside stimulus, in this case relating to the smells/sight/voice of the person in question.
if you mean what causes it inside your body then neurons.
want to get more specific the neurons firing a pattern of electrical impulses telling your body to create certain chemicals

(if they think it's a spiritual thing, i'd hate to be around them when they see something that turns their stomache(or goosebumps i guess) OMG THE DEVIL HAS SHOWN HIS FACE MUST EXORCISM NOWWWW!)

[chaotus]

Mechanical responses like this suggest people have never known love. It's not just chemicals being pumped out; there's no unlove pill to cancel it out.

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So it has no bearing on genitals, awesome!

Well yeah, love is a emotional response. Erections and secretions are not love, that is sexual simulation. You don't love someone and suddenly you pop a woodie. You love someone and then you are sexual attracted to them and pop a woodie. The OP is talking about love, not sexual attraction. While paired together they are both significantly different responses.

Also there is work being done on a unlove pill. It blocks the chemical receptions in the brain to prevent people from experiencing the hormone surge. It's being sought as a way to help alleviate psychology compulsions to stalk. combined with the memory removing substance being researched as well it would be complete possible to recall a memory while taking the drug via IV and over multiple sessions be unable to recall a specific memory anymore, then combine it with the unlove pill and you have the ability to no longer recall a painful love relate tragedy.

But yeah, wetness and erections are not love. They are a possible side effect of a love reaction. Possible being the keyword.

[dextersmith]

What is love?

this had to be done. Not even sorry.

- - - Updated - - -

Well yeah, love is a emotional response. Erections and secretions are not love, that is sexual simulation. You don't love someone and suddenly you pop a woodie. You love someone and then you are sexual attracted to them and pop a woodie. The OP is talking about love, not sexual attraction. While paired together they are both significantly different responses.

Also there is work being done on a unlove pill. It blocks the chemical receptions in the brain to prevent people from experiencing the hormone surge. It's being sought as a way to help alleviate psychology compulsions to stalk. combined with the memory removing substance being researched as well it would be complete possible to recall a memory while taking the drug via IV and over multiple sessions be unable to recall a specific memory anymore, then combine it with the unlove pill and you have the ability to no longer recall a painful love relate tragedy.

But yeah, wetness and erections are not love. They are a possible side effect of a love reaction. Possible being the keyword.

Yes, the bearing is a side effect.

[chaotus]

Yes, the bearing is a side effect.

Your bearing seemed in a sarcastic tone, was I incorrect?

People can be in love and have no sexual attraction.

[dextersmith]

Your bearing seemed in a sarcastic tone, was I incorrect?

People can be in love and have no sexual attraction.

Correct. I suppose it's possible, but, I don't want to be in those shoes!

[ellieg]

I guess it's probably something caused by chemicals, but I think there's more to it than that. If it was only chemicals, surely you could make someone fall in love with the right injection, and I don't believe that's possible?

MDMA or something similar is essentially that.

[Deleted]

MDMA or something similar is essentially that.

Except it's not, it has a whole bunch of other effects that love on it's own doesn't.

There has been some pretty unethical shit done in the past, and yet this hasn't. Until someone can reproduce love in a lab like that, I refuse to believe that there is nothing more to it than a chemical. Like, I'm not saying it's any like spiritual nonsense or anything like that, but if it was a chemical alone... I mean, sure, MDMA makes similar feelings sure, but along with a whole bunch of other side effects that aren't present during love, not to mention like "similar" isn't "the same". Lots of painkillers have similar effects, but they're not all the same.

[Grimbold21]

You know when guys usually say that they like a girl so much that masturbating to them feels wrong?

There you go, that's love.

[Rukh]

Except it's not, it has a whole bunch of other effects that love on it's own doesn't.

There has been some pretty unethical shit done in the past, and yet this hasn't. Until someone can reproduce love in a lab like that, I refuse to believe that there is nothing more to it than a chemical. Like, I'm not saying it's any like spiritual nonsense or anything like that, but if it was a chemical alone... I mean, sure, MDMA makes similar feelings sure, but along with a whole bunch of other side effects that aren't present during love, not to mention like "similar" isn't "the same". Lots of painkillers have similar effects, but they're not all the same.

Love is also situational. You actually basically get all the emotional rush of love when you eat chocolate. Its actually a fairly simple emotion. The thing is, you know you're eating chocolate, not feeling it about another person. We're complex enough that when we feel emotions, we contextualize it in to our life and our values of the things around us.

That's why depression is so insidious. It's just a feeling, but we contextualize it in to the values we place on all the things around us. It taints everything we value and we don't enjoy things.

Human emotion is only part about physical perception, its also a lot about context.