love is just a four letter word

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koolguy18
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26 Feb 2009, 10:54 pm

I heard love was made up, like those WMD's in Iraq and an olive that taste good, or the Cubs winning the World Series. Its not just my opinion, lately im starting to believe its my reality, except for that one time. Its amazing how simply it all really is, eh?


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CWhite978
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26 Feb 2009, 11:07 pm

People sure treat it that way.



Eggman
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27 Feb 2009, 3:53 am

so is beer, but at least you can drink it.


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aaronrey
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27 Feb 2009, 10:23 am

Love (romantic love, that is) is just a bunch of chemical reactions in the brain. When you're with someone who makes you feel loved, your brain starts producing oxytocin, along with other hormones, that makes you feel all warm and cuddly. Pheromones play a big role in love too; they have molecular structures similar to hormones, but are meant to travel through the air, rather than inside the body. Scientists said that your body produces certain pheromones that other people respond to. If someone responds well to them, feeling of love can arise.

But in the end, it's just a bunch of chemical reactions in the brain, an evolutionary mechanisms at work. Among mammals, that's how males and females are brought together and how social groups form. In humans, the role of pheromones is thought to be weak, but ultimately, love is nothing out of the ordinary, just as a human heart is simply a specialized pump with no magical properties.



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27 Feb 2009, 3:38 pm

Aspie1 wrote:
[In] the end, it's just a bunch of chemical reactions in the brain, an evolutionary mechanisms at work. Among mammals, that's how males and females are brought together and how social groups form. In humans, the role of pheromones is thought to be weak, but ultimately, love is nothing out of the ordinary, just as a human heart is simply a specialized pump with no magical properties.


Um, Aspie1: Everything is just a chemical reaction in the brain. Everything, and love, limerence, and hatred are no exceptions to the rule. It's wiring being controlled by chemicals. Every time you eat and it tastes good, that's a reaction involving chemicals in the brain. Every time you masturbate and that feels good, it's chemicals. Every time you take a s**t and it feels good, it's chemicals. It's the feedback system throughout the nervous system, and it's not unlike blood carrying oxygen and nutrients; it's absolutely necessary for everything we do. Take our chemicals away and we'd sit like lumps unable or unwilling to do anything.

Of course, I have no doubt you know all of this, but I wanted to clarify that 'love' is no less real or valid because it's 'just chemicals'. It's real enough, and it has its purposes.

'Love' is, indeed, a four letter word, and sometimes a pretty worthless one since it can cover a whole range of positive feedback, but it's a word that stands for real reactions nonetheless. Not everyone is going to feel limerence -- some people never do -- and not everyone is going to feel or form a lasting bond with anyone, particularly those with ASDs. The chemicals for many people with ASDs are different, as is the wiring, so social bonding can be anything from mildly to severely impaired. Or it may not be affected at all, in some cases.



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27 Feb 2009, 7:31 pm

Orbyss's sig wrote:
"Animals, most likely, can't help 'doing what comes naturally.' But humans can. [We] are never so human as when we behave contrary to our natural inclinations, those most in tune with our biological impulses." -David P. Barash

Words to live by.



Matthaeus
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06 Apr 2015, 8:55 pm



Diningroom
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10 Apr 2015, 7:33 pm

koolguy18 wrote:
I heard love was made up, like those WMD's in Iraq and an olive that taste good, or the Cubs winning the World Series. Its not just my opinion, lately im starting to believe its my reality, except for that one time. Its amazing how simply it all really is, eh?


If you're not interested finding love, nobody's going to make you make you find love.



nick007
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11 Apr 2015, 10:25 pm

Love is a type of seat & a zero in tennis.


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Antharis
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12 Apr 2015, 2:32 am

Love is a word that's been so diluted with overuse that it doesn't really have a set meaning. For the sake of drawing attention to their own experiences, people have a tendency to use the word love as a superlative for the positive ones.

Having said this, love in a romantic sense, is defined by the self. Intimacy is the baring of the self to someone else (not just physically) so the definition given to it is not only tied to the extent you can bare yourself and how well you can get that message across, but also to the self that's being bared.

I find the word love is too heavy with the ideas and parameters of people that don't think, feel or sense like I do (Maybe others here think the same way?). For this reason I'm fond of the idea of ditching it and looking beyond it. It's a currency that's been devalued to nothing.



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17 Apr 2015, 12:30 pm

Yep it is indeed a four letter word I can think of quite a few others but if I say them here they will be blurted out and the mods will get mad at me esspecially the f word.


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Diningroom
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18 Apr 2015, 9:13 pm

koolguy18 wrote:
I heard love was made up, like those WMD's in Iraq and an olive that taste good, or the Cubs winning the World Series. Its not just my opinion, lately im starting to believe its my reality, except for that one time. Its amazing how simply it all really is, eh?


Are you fishing for compliments? Hoping for folks to tell you you are worthy and deserving of it? Cuz I can't see any other reason for this post.



hilaryy_renee_
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20 Apr 2015, 1:24 am

I agree with your statement, "Love is just a four letter word." But I have to definitely add to that.
It's incredibly intricate, and even unexplainable, at times. :heart: I believe that love, in all of its forms, is wondrous & beautiful; there really is no "set" or "absolute" definition for the word, love. It all depends on each individuals' perception of it, because not everyone defines love exactly the same as another.


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jrjones9933
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04 May 2015, 8:10 am

If people stopped using love as a noun, and took care how they used it as a verb, they might find it more useful.


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AspieOtaku
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06 May 2015, 2:19 am

Sex is a 3 letter word!


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