One of the most important things a human being needs to be happy is good and healthy relationships. This fact by itself proves to us how important having good relationship is, and that they affect our health tremendously. In fact, falling in love induces several physical changes to your body and life such as lowering your blood pressure, and feeling less pain. However, these changes also affect your mental health. Therefore, read on to find out the best effects of having good relationships, not only on your physical health but on your brain as well.
1- ACTIVATES THE VAGUS NERVE
Have you ever saw your crush and felt strong heartbeats, had your palms sweating and something move in your stomach? The cause of the latter feeling is the vagus nerve. The Vagus nerve is connected from the brain to your gut causes that feeling “butterflies” in your stomach when you are very happy.
2- CAUSES A HORMONE RUSH
When you have positive feelings that are very strong, such as love, your brain is full of hormones. The main ones are the following:
- Oxytocin, the love hormone that makes you feel pleasure
- Dopamine
- Sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone
- Adrenaline, makes the heart beat faster
The concentration of hormones intensifies feelings of excitement, attraction, and euphoria.
3- CAN MAKE YOU ADDICTED
When you fall in love with someone, you crave spending every second with them and thoughts of that person invades your brain. Not to freak you out, but this is a kind of addiction because it activates the same system that cocaine addiction activates in your brain.
4- IT LOWERS YOUR SEROTONIN LEVELS
Research has found a link between feelings of love and low serotonin levels, which is also a vital component of obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD. This is the reason why people who fall in love, focus on the person they love more than anything else.
5- LOVE CAN MAKE YOU LOSE FOCUS
Ok, this one is a negative side effect of love. Being in love distracts you, but do you know why? The rush and change of hormones and feelings you experience leads to reduced cognitive control which translates into attention loss.
6- IT MAKES YOU MORE EMPATHETIC
Being in love strengthens your empathy and makes you process emotions in a better way. It also reduced the brain areas related to egocentrism and self-focus. This helps you be in touch with your feelings by growing the gray matter volume in brain areas associated with emotion processing.
7- YOUR BRAIN ACTIVITY IS AFFECTED DIFFERENTLY BASED ON THE LEVEL OF LOVE
A study used MRI scans to precisely determine what phase of love a person was in based on their brain activity. It showed that falling in love triggers the brain’s reward center, while breaking up reduces activity in the same area, and decreases the functional connectivity in a part of this center associated with the expectation of rewards.
