Fall Into

Modern culture treats love as a feeling — something you fall into like a hole in the ground. You have no control over it. It overwhelms you. And when the feeling fades, the love must be over. This view has a perfect track record of creating disappointment.

The intense feeling of early romance is real, but it is not love. Researchers describe it as a brain-chemistry surge — high dopamine and dipping serotonin — that can resemble obsessive-compulsive disorder. And like any surge, it is temporary, typically fading within a year or two.