What is the difference between falling in love and loving someone

Being in love is an involuntary response; loving someone is a constant and consistent choice. In relation to the first section, being in love with someone can be involuntary and intense, but if not nurtured, can also be short-lived. Most of the time, we fall in love with someone who represents our own definition of perfection. Loving someone, on the other hand, requires constant and consistent effort. Being in love is fueled by passion; loving someone involves care, respect, and loyalty.

Passion fuels that intense feeling of being in love. However, the faster it burns and bursts, the swifter and sudden its demise.

Just like that, that passionately burning relationship can be easily extinguished because its source is often limited and short-lived. However, loving someone is like keeping a stable and steady flame. Being in love can be temporary; loving someone can last a lifetime. Being in love, just like what was mentioned in the previous sections, is both short-lived and inconsistent.

You can decide you will see their best qualities, appreciate them for who they are, and be a supportive partner to them. You can also choose to stop loving someone, to walk away and forget about them. Being in love is not a choice. Loving someone means wanting them to do well, being in love means putting them first. Of course you want the person you love to do well, but are you actually prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to make that happen?

Maybe he chips in a little extra for rent while you get through graduate school, or maybe you take extra morning walk shifts with the dog because he loves to sleep in. Loving someone is fleeting, being in love is forever.

Love can literally end at any moment. It stays through the fights, the lulls, and the full blown existential crisis. When the honeymoon phase is over and life gets a little more routine, only the relationship where you are actually in love will be a happy one.

Loving someone means needing them around, being in love means needing them to be where they are happy. When you love someone, you always want them to be around. You crave them. Deborah Tayloe. Lifestyle Read More. Jennifer Hinders. Related Items couples dating difference between being in love and loving someone difference between loving someone and being in love with someone difference between loving someone and being in love with them in love love loving marriage relationship what's the difference between being in love and loving someone.

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The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". This website is owned and operated by BetterHelp, who receives all fees associated with the platform. Source: pexels. That is what lies the heart of love. Love makes the world go round. But if you had to choose between love and being in love which would you choose? As a counselor, I spend a lot of time talking about love and being in love. A common question is, "What's the difference between loving someone and being in love?

So while I recognize you can love many people in your life in many different ways, I will be focusing on romantic love for the purposes of this article. Being in love is a heady, lusty, lovely experience. It's a state of near obsession with your partner or love object.

You don't see flaws. You crave their presence. Being in-love is indeed like a drug. Being in love is usually a phase at the beginning of a relationship. It's chemistry, it's infatuation and it's short-term. We can be glad about that because many people report a loss of appetite, increased energy and insomnia in the throes of being in love.

Being in love is a foundation for long-term love. Though there's no way to keep the infatuation going as strong as it is during the NRE New Relationship Energy phase, couples that do well with pro-relationship behaviors will find themselves being in love many times across the years.

Love is different from being in love. When you love someone deeply, the chemical balance in your body is affected. Oxytocin is released when you see them, prompting you to form and develop your bond. Oxytocin is the cuddle hormone that helps you bond to other humans, as well as animals. Loving someone can be best described as an attachment.

The long-term bond is strengthened by the action of a hormone called Vasopressin. Falling in love is a different chemical process. Falling in love requires lust and sexual attraction. It accesses the chemicals in your body that get your heart racing, literally. Dopamine is activated which makes you feel euphoric. Norepinephrine makes you feel on nervous, making your hands sweaty and your heart beat faster.

Serotonin makes you feel so deliriously happy, it's as though you've lost your mind.