It's been fairly well established that there are chemicals in your brain that are associated with certain kinds of relationships. They are at least partly responsible for some of the feelings of euphoria and happiness that a person in love feels, and the brain's reaction to them is at least partly responsible for some very common relationship behaviour.
Elevated dopamine levels, for example, have been found in the brains of those in a new, strong romantic relationship. This is known to cause heightened attention, sleeplessness, and decreased appetite. Just like someone infatuated. You would feel all these thing if you had some injected without any kind of relationship... a lot of addictive drugs do just this.
And here's the thing. Like with those addictive drugs, you brain builds up a tolerance. The same stimulus because less and less effective. After a month or two, what originally made you high on dopamine will have no effect. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that so many infatuations come and go as passing fancies and long-term relationships seldom recover this initial feeling.
Sometimes, however, another chemical makes up the gap. One of these is oxytocin. A lot of things cause your brain to produce this, including orgasms and nursing. It's known effects include sexual arousal, bonding and empathic feelings, and a reduction in fear, axiety, and the like. These effects can last for days sometimes.
But like dopamine, your brain adjusts. Within three to seven years, the same things don't cause the same kind of effect any more. Again we can see an effect in relationships - the so-called seven-year-itch when marriages tend to start seeing infidelity.
Of course, none of these things MAKE you behave in a particular way. They just explain some of the feelings you are likely to feel. Infatuations will wear off, and even the cozy feeling of new marriages will go away. Relationships can and do persist past both these points, but that is usually because they become built on other things: familiarity, trust, convenience, memory, tradition, and so on.
Links below for more information, if you're interested.
2007-11-16 10:59:52
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answer #1
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answered by Doctor Why 7
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it is the little foxes that spoil the vine.
the small stones that build the great walls.
over time..
2007-11-16 18:04:24
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answer #3
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answered by captsnuf 7
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