 Something strange happens to our brains when we fall in love. People who experience extreme attraction to another person notice all sorts of crazy things happen to their minds. It can feel like you're going insane. It could feel like a drug. It could feel like you're possessed. But what makes us feel this way? What happens to our minds to make us feel this way? Scientific research has been done to figure out if this concept of love has any real biological evidence behind it. And there have been some surprising, wonderful results. But a scientific explanation of love and attraction kind of takes away from the whole mystique of love and attraction, doesn't it? Is love just a chemical reaction in the brain? Or is it something deeper? Here are a few psychological effects of attraction that might give us an answer to these questions. 1. Intensified feelings One of the most confusing, exhausting, and wonderful things about love and attraction is the fact that you experience heightened emotions. Everything either seems beautiful or tragic. It's like your emotions are music and someone turned the volume to max. This can either seem torturous or amazing. 2. Information exchange People who feel attracted to each other have a more intricate social system of conversing with each other. More specifically, they tell each other more about what's going on, emotionally and mentally. Basically, they say whatever they're thinking. The specific term for this psychology is called information exchange. People who feel attracted to each other experience more of this. 3. Protects your mental health Researchers found that people in long-term relationships and people who are experiencing love are much less likely to develop mental illnesses. 4. Reduces trauma People who are attracted to each other find it easier to deal with traumatic events, such as illnesses or deaths in the family. This is because people in strong relationships are never alone when they deal with such events and always have someone to talk to. They know they'll always have the support of their partner. 5. Reduces stress Being in a strong relationship where both partners are extremely attracted to each other plays a vital role in reducing stress. Sometimes, the opposite happens, and certain parts of being attracted to someone can be stressful. But the rest of the time, it reduces stress. 6. Makes you more helpful When everything is going well and you feel very attracted to someone, the whole notion of everyone just caring about themselves pretty much goes out the window. To people in love, the very idea that someone could sit idly by and watch someone else suffer can be ridiculous. They have so much love in their hearts that it begins to influence their actions, causing them to be more likely to help other people who are suffering. 7. Makes you more brave People who are attracted to each other find things a lot less scary than people who aren't in a relationship. This is because no matter what, they know they will never have to face their fears alone. The one thing that people fear is being alone, because there's a certain level of uncertainty and coldness that people feel when being alone, and people who are in love never have to feel that way. 8. Releases adrenaline Adrenaline is released when you start feeling attracted to someone. This chemical gets released by the brain, but its effects are felt throughout the body. It causes the body to start sweating, the heart to beat, and the mouth to go dry. 9. Releases dopamine The neurotransmitter known as dopamine is usually found in drug addicts' brains, but interesting enough, it is also found in people who are experiencing high levels of attraction. Dopamine causes high rushes of pleasure throughout the brain. You don't need to be on drugs to experience it, just fall in love. 10. Releases serotonin Serotonin is another brain chemical that's found in drug users. Causing feelings of happiness and well-being. It regulates mood, appetite, and sleep. It is also found in the brains of people who are in love or strongly attracted to each other. This causes them to think constantly about their partner. 11. Releases oxytocin Oxytocin is a powerful hormone that is released at the height of orgasm. This hormone is still not very well understood by scientists, but they are certain that it has some huge effects on people's brains. It is thought that it makes people in strong relationships feel closer to each other. It is also responsible for creating a strong bond between a mother and her child. 12. Releases vasopressin Vasopressin is another hormone that's released by two people who are in love with each other after sex. It is also responsible for controlling your level of thirst. Although its effects are not very well understood either, it is believed that this hormone is responsible for causing a sense of attachment to people we are attracted to, causing the feeling that the people we love belong to us and no one else. 13. Causes hurt The area of the brain that is activated when we feel love-related emotions is the same area that's activated when we feel pain. 14. Causes addiction Similarly, areas of the brain that are responsible for addiction are also activated when we feel the emotions of attraction. Love can be extremely addicting, sometimes even more so than drugs. When you feel attracted to someone, even the act of thinking about that person can become an addiction, and many people find themselves daydreaming constantly about their partner. 15. Causes jealousy Another extremely common psychological effect of attraction is jealousy. This happens particularly when love doesn't go according to plan, and the person you're attracted to chooses someone else. Inevitably, you become jealous of the person who they chose over you, wishing you were them. 16. Leads to suicidal thoughts This is another result of one-sided love, one of the worst possible scenarios developing suicidal thoughts is an extremely dangerous psychological reaction to the feelings of love and attraction. 17. Causes anxiety Another possible effect of love and attraction is anxiety, a reaction that's not ideal. When you are so in love with someone, it's possible to care so much about making the relationship work that you start to stress out, constantly worrying that your partner will leave or that you might mess everything up. 18. You start thinking in the wee tense This effect of attraction can occur after someone becomes so in love with an individual that they cease to think of themselves as one individual and instead begin to view them and their partner as a single unit. For example, instead of thinking, I wonder if I'd like that movie that just came out, you think I wonder if we would like that movie. This way of thinking affects everything. 19. You feel rewarded According to various brain scans, parts of the brain which makes us feel rewarded are triggered when we feel attraction. This also ties in with the chemical dopamine, which is also responsible for feelings of being rewarded. 20. You feel safe People in long-term relationships also feel high levels of safety and security. This could be due to the human group psychology, where people feel safer when they're around more people. It's more likely, however, that people feel safer when they're in relationships because they subconsciously know they're less prone to at-risk behavior since they have each other's backs. 21. Causes aggressive behavior Another negative aspect of love and attraction is that it can lead to conflict between people. In the times of ancient Greece, a huge army was launched against the city of Troy because one king felt the trade after losing his life to another man. It can bring out primitive emotions and instincts in our brains, which makes us revert to displays of dominance and violent behavior in order to win our mates and make sure no one takes them away. 22. Activates the striatum An area of the brain called the striatum is also activated when people are in love. The striatum is responsible for a wide variety of things, including our reward system. It's also responsible for some very important behaviors that may affect our actions, including planning, decision-making, and motivation. 23. Activates the insula The insula is another part of the human brain that's activated when someone feels love or attraction. Part of the cerebral cortex, the insula is responsible for vital duties such as motor control and self-awareness. It's also responsible for thought patterns that are more relevant to the emotions of love and attraction, including emotions, perception, and interpersonal experience. 24. Causes obsessive behavior One of the hallmarks of love and attraction is obsession. Sometimes people can be so in love with someone that they worship them as gods, building shrines in their rooms to honor them, dreaming about them, and making note of every little thing they say. It comes to no surprise then that love has been proven to be linked to obsessive behavior, placating certain symptoms of disorders like OCD or obsessive-compulsive disorder. What are your thoughts about this? Do you find yourself showing any of these effects when you are in love? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe and check out our other social media. Thank you for watching!