People newly in love show the same serotonin levels as OCD patients — a chemical state that tends to fade within 12 to 18 months, which is exactly when the real question about what love actually is begins

People newly in love show the same serotonin levels as OCD patients — a chemical state that tends to fade within 12 to 18 months, which is exactly when the real question about what love actually is begins

Falling in love is not a metaphor for a feeling. For a while, it is closer to a diagnosis. Brain imaging studies on people in the early weeks of romantic love show activation patterns that are hard to tell apart from those of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Serotonin drops into the same low range doctors see in OCD patients, dopamine floods the reward system the way it does with certain drugs, and the mind keeps replaying the same ten seconds of …