By Signs You’re in Love: How to Tell the Difference Between Love and Lust
By Becky Anderson
Signs You’re in Love: How Real Attachment Feels Different From Lust - What changes in your body, habits, and mindset when feelings deepenWe use the word love loosely.A strong attraction becomes love. A thrilling weekend becomes love. Intense chemistry becomes love.But love, lust, and infatuation are not the same experience — biologically or emotionally. When attachment deepens, your body, focus, and behavior shift in measurable ways.Here’s what often happens when feelings move beyond surface attraction.
1. Your Pain Tolerance Changes
Research in neuroscience has shown that romantic attachment activates reward centers in the brain. When those centers are stimulated, perception shifts — including how we process discomfort.People deeply attached to someone often report lower sensitivity to mild physical pain when thinking about their partner. It is not that pain disappears. It is that attention and emotional reward systems temporarily soften its intensity.Love redirects focus outward.2. You Smile Without Realizing It
When you replay conversations, shared jokes, or future plans, your face often responds before you do. Attachment increases dopamine and oxytocin activity, both linked to pleasure and bonding.You may notice yourself smiling at your phone, in your car, or in the middle of an ordinary task. That reflex is not performative. It is neurological reinforcement.3. You Check Your Phone More Than Usual
Anticipation becomes part of your daily rhythm.You look for messages. You keep your phone close. Even if you normally dislike long calls, you make exceptions. The brain begins associating that person with reward. Expectation alone can trigger small bursts of excitement.4. You Develop Interest in Things You Once Ignored
Love expands curiosity.You want to understand what matters to them — their music, hobbies, routines, even their favorite coffee order. This is not loss of identity. It is relational adaptation.In healthy attachment, you grow — not shrink. You may try new activities not because you are changing yourself, but because you want shared experience.5. You Feel Elevated Without External Stimulation
Early-stage love often produces a sense of emotional elevation. Sleep may feel lighter. Energy may feel higher. Focus may narrow toward one person.Dopamine, norepinephrine, and oxytocin increase during romantic bonding. These chemicals influence attention, motivation, and mood.That euphoric edge tends to stabilize over time. Mature love becomes steadier — less intense, more grounded.6. Physical Desire Often Increases
Attraction and attachment frequently reinforce each other.Emotional closeness strengthens physical desire. Intimacy becomes less about impulse and more about connection.In long-term love, physical intimacy supports bonding rather than replacing it.7. You Want Integration Into Each Other’s Lives
Social behavior shifts when love deepens.You introduce each other to friends. You appear together publicly. You become curious about each other’s daily worlds — including digital presence.The difference between lust and love often appears here: lust hides; love integrates.Love vs. Lust: The Real Distinction
Lust is primarily physical and short-term. Infatuation is intense but unstable. Love builds continuity.Love includes: • Emotional safety • Mutual investment • Long-term thinking • Willingness to endure inconvenience • Desire for shared growthIt is not just excitement. It is commitment forming beneath excitement.If your feelings expand your empathy, patience, and responsibility, you may be in love.If your feelings narrow your thinking and prioritize only immediate gratification, you may be in something else.Love matures. Lust peaks.Knowing the difference protects your future.Discover more from Feminine Digest
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