Undoubtedly, people have different journeys in falling in love. Some people experience the greatness of feeling in love maybe once in their lifetime, some people fall in love a million times, and some probably fall in love with different people every week. Even the act of falling in love itself can mean different things to different people and happens at different points in their life.
Love has been taught to us since the day we were born, through our parent's love towards us, and it is something that has been displayed in endless forms of arts like works of literature, songs, movies, legends, and more. They say love is a great feeling, and it can happen unexpectedly anytime. However, is there any exact measure of how many days one finally falls in love? Can science explain this?
Love is often associated with the heart, but science shows that it is all about what is going on in the brain. A biological anthropologist and human behavior researcher, Helen Fisher, Ph.D., explains that we tend to fall in love with people under different circumstances, such as similar backgrounds, socioeconomic classes, same values, aspirations, looks, and even reproductive goals.
With that, she stated that love can happen instantly, making the period people fall in love varies from one person to another. "It's a basic brain system; you can be scared instantly, you can instantly feel anger or disgust, you can instantly feel joy, and you can instantly fall in love," she explains. "Attachment can take some time, but the brain circuitry (like dopamine, norepinephrine, and mating instinct) for romantic love can be triggered instantly." she further stated.
In other words, it is difficult to measure a process that doesn't fall within any defined parameters, making it challenging to pinpoint the time it takes to fall in love. No set test can determine whether you are in love or not-you might not even be sure of what your feelings can mean. However, researchers have tried to measure how long it takes for people to feel like confessing their love. Thinking about saying "I love you" to someone is very different from feeling it, but logically, you wouldn't start to consider saying them unless you had started to fall for someone.
According to Healthline, a 6-part study published in 2011 examined various aspects of commitment in romantic relationships where male participants confessed that it took them just over 97 days on average to consider sharing their feelings with their love interest. Meanwhile, female participants reported thinking about confessing their love for nearly 139 days on average.
Hence, there's no exact answer for how long it takes to fall in love. But since romantic love is driven by the neurotransmitter in the brain, you can constantly trigger it to speed up the process. The brain system revolving around romantic attachment is like a sleeping cat; it can be awakened anytime, within seconds, months, or even years. That is probably why some people fall in love quickly and some take their time to grow that immense feeling. After all, falling in love isn't a perfect science.
(HAI/MEL)