If you are early into a relationship and you’re looking for signs that you really care about a person, you may find yourself questioning your feelings. If somebody has said they love you or you can tell the other person in the relationship is really looking to take things to the next step, you might be confused about your own feelings towards the person. Even if you’re thinking of them often, sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re in love or just infatuated with the other person. Here are some of the top signs that you are in love as backed by some biological triggers:
They dominate your thoughts:
When you’re in love, you can place extra emphasis on the person that you’re in love with, especially in your thoughts. If you’re truly in love with a person it might even be difficult for you to feel any type of romantic passion for other people. This single mindedness and domination of thoughts will often trigger a central form of dopamine for a more involved level of attention and focus in your brain when that persons around or when you are thinking about them. This can in turn triggered the same feelings of butterflies in the stomach from the intense brain activity.
You find them even more attractive:
After you’ve spent time with somebody and gone through various experiences with them, there’s a good chance that you’ll begin to find an even more attractive. The dopamine producing neurons in the mid region of the brain become more productive when you start to receive romantic attention from somebody you’re in love with. This added dopamine only improves the level of attraction that you feel for somebody.
Mood swings when they’re gone:
Being in love can actually be fairly similar to being addicted to a substance. You might start to experience a panic or feeling of anxiety when the relationship suffers a setback or when your partner isn’t able to be around. The form of addiction can run quite deep as well and in measuring brain activity through scientific study, people even experienced changes in brain activity when they were shown a picture of their loved one and then it was taken away.
You’ve done future planning:
If you feel well supported in a relationship when you’re seeking a way to get closer to a person, you may find yourself planning for the future even without thinking about it. If you’ve casually commented about seeing a future with someone or how a conversation about what your future life might be, there is a chance that you are driven towards that person and the future with them. This is often an early sign that you are falling in love.
If you’re feeling a bit confused on where your relationship is going and if you’re falling in love, remember some of these top reactions and consider your own behaviour!
Rachel Hall, M.A., completed her education in English at the University of Pennsylvania and received her master’s degree in family therapy from Northern Washington University. She has been actively involved in the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, OCD, and coping with life changes and traumatic events for both families and individual clients for over a decade. Her areas of expertise include narrative therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and therapy for traumatic cases. In addition, Rachel conducts workshops focusing on the psychology of positive thinking and coping skills for both parents and teens. She has also authored numerous articles on the topics of mental health, stress, family dynamics and parenting.
