TYPICAL ROMANTIC MOVIE SCENARIOS:

1) The guy is a womaniser, but the special woman who plays hard to get makes him see the error of his ways.

2) The girl is unnoticed and the guy she pines for always fancies someone who is prettier than her but makes less sense on paper. He comes around in the end because she makes him feel wanted, unlike the prettier girl who treats him badly.

3) The guy is an underachiever and is punching well above his weight with the girl he likes. Eventually though, through a lot of being awesome and kooky, he wins the girl of his dreams.

4) Guy and girl always miss the opportunity to tell each other how they feel and leave it right until everything’s nearly at risk of being lost before they engage in their long-awaited true love’s declaration.

5) Girl’s best friend likes the guy first, but they fall in love instead and it messes everything up between the friends etc.

Have you noticed there’s a running theme here? Drama. Love is whatever is dramatic. Not what is most confident and secure, just whatever’s heightened. And have you ever noticed that it’s pretty hard to reach that state of ecstasy in a relationship more than once? Thus, you start to feel “bored” or “stuck in a rut” – maybe your heart’s just not in it anymore?

Let me give you a brief insight on what “love” feels like. You may think it’s when you see that person and your chest goes all fluttery, that when you embrace them you want to absorb everything about them, your senses are in haywire and you just know that when you look into their eyes that they’re “the one.”

WRONG.

Your body is doing something phenomenal. It is, in fact, reacting with a hormonal rush – most likely due to sexual attraction – and that flood of hormones is designed to “feel” good. Serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins are the feel-good chemicals responsible and they all each offer something unique to our mental happiness scale.

“Serotonin flows when you feel significant or important.” So when someone tells you the things you want to hear, such as, “I care about you”, “You’re special to me”, “I love you too” etc. these little blighters kick into action and make you feel wanted. Without these words to aid the release of serotonin, we then believe that we are lonely and thus become sad.

“Dopamine motivates us to take action toward goals, desires, and needs, and gives a surge of reinforcing pleasure when achieving them.” If you see love as a goal, then perhaps finally telling someone the love you’ve had for them for so long is best told at the last possible minute, that way you will get the greatest flood of dopamine? It is a goal you’ve wanted to achieve for a while, so why not obtain it when it’s at its most dramatic and get the biggest rush ever? Perhaps this is also why “make-up-sex” feels so great after an argument? Not because anything important is solved, but because it proves as a fantastically pleasurable (yet unproductive) distraction from reality.

“Oxytocin creates intimacy, trust, and builds healthy relationships.” Once you believe that said person involved loves the bones of you and that everything’s finally fallen into place, this hormone will work to combine those feelings and enforce pure emotional security. By no means is it permanent or necessarily true, but it feels true, so you believe it.

“Endorphins are released in response to pain and stress and help to alleviate anxiety and depression.” These little tykes are so great at boosting your mood. When you feel down, you may attempt to sublimate that negative emotion by going for a run or by dancing. After a while, your body will release endorphins to aid you carrying on, motivate you to do it again and see it as a release from any inner negativity. I mean, that’s great and all, but this can be abused. So, if you have had a massive lover’s tiff, but you know that the act of romance and sex makes you feel better again, you may well engage in it. You’ll feel like you can tackle the world again, only to realise later that nothing on a deeper level has changed.

Taking all this into account, the concept of “love” therefore cannot be delivered on a rational or logical scale. Rather, it is an emotional one (which is probably why we make some seriously naff choices in partner sometimes) and why we believe that this notion of true love is indicated through these dramatic means. How can anything be true (an objective and rational matter based on logic and evidence) if its platform is that of “love” which is merely an emotional and mutable concept?

If you were asked, “Why do you love him/her?” could you give a logical answer? Probably not one that is particularly cogent, no. But if you were then asked, “Why do blue and yellow when mixed together make the colour green?” Without a doubt, you’d be able to give a detailed and logical answer. However, if you answered, “Because when blue and yellow are together they feel something which causes a colour change.” I think you already know that’s not quite how it works…

My point is, if you cannot state why something is true without using a feeling as an indicator, then it can only be considered false, subjective and/or temporary. Something based on mood is not a deductive argument of certainty.

So why do the movies do that? Are we convinced that this is evidence of relationships that will have longevity? That only the theatrical connections are ones of worth? Because in all honesty…it’s bol**cks. Yes, these intense emotions are very useful in creating an initial connection with someone and deciphering sexual attraction. BUT, they are by no means useful as predicates for a relationship that will go-the-distance, per se.

Relationships are a societal construct that we have set the confines for. Our bodies only set those hormonal blasts as indicators for baby-making. There is a major difference between sex (an action where only feeling good with that person at the time is necessary in order to achieve this goal) and relationships (a permanent and secure connection based on evidence exhibited through actions of trust, honesty and loyalty). One only has to last as long as the action is required, and once its purpose has been served, those feelings will dissipate (so, once climax has been reached and died down, you will also stop “feeling” as strongly) and the other one has to be consistent and permanent (if an action between the two connected proved evidence of dishonesty, distrust or disloyalty, then the security of the whole relationship would break down). Thus, sex only needs temporary happiness as a means to an end, whereas a relationship requires an established platform of knowledge, as there is no end, only a continuation of stability.

You might be thinking by now that this all sounds very unromantic and that it just can’t be true. But guess what? It’s a matter of fact. And if you can prove otherwise to me that the success of your relationship is purely based on the fact that you love each other, and that that notion conquers any serious obstacle you encounter along the way and you never get bored or randomly decide to end it all only to change your mind again 5 minutes later, then I’ll eat my my tea bags. But for now, I’m not budging.

Love is a concept created by society as an attempt to join sex and relationships into one, and although I’d like to believe they were both possible to intertwine, you have to realise that they require different factors as evidence for success. If you want to maintain your “happiness”, then have a lot of sex. But if there’s something deeper bothering you in regards to trust, honesty and/or loyalty in the person you are having sex with, then know that won’t go away by merely exchanging lovey-dovey sentences or intense declarations. That has to be worked on by ensuring stability, and that can only be achieved through reasonable proof of which can be believed as true.