Cloudscape

This entry in a few words: being love is often seen as merely hormonal because it lasts only for a few months once we are in a relationship. However, exactly the same is observed in friendship. This is merely because people seem more interesting when we first meet them, at least if we take to each other.

Many scientists see being love as something purely hormonal, arguing that it does not, after all, last for long. They often point at the chemicals released in our brain and compare it the effects to drugs. However, the chemicals involved in romantic love - dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, phenylethylamine - are all some of the same chemicals involved in social interaction in general, as well as in other emotions. We should not forget, however, that neurotransmitters are not our emotions; they are the paint in which our experiences and emotions are made. Sometimes, the result is just a big splotch of paint, as in the use of narcotic drugs or physical sex; sometimes, the result is a child's drawing, as in the thousandth repetition of a superficial conversation; sometimes, the result is a beautiful canvas, as in the contemplation of nature's wonders or true love.

Usually, after a few months we are no longer in love even though the person and often our relationship with them has remained the same. However, in this they make the crucial error not to take into account psychological factors.
Falling in love is an emotional reponse which comes from a deep and often subconscious need for a soulmate. Someone with whom one can connect to the roots of the soul, with whom one can share all one's feelings that lie deep within our core, someone with whom you can together discover who you really are. It's the need no no longer to be, alone, but to be, together, to find someone with whom one can live as one, someone who forms the missing part of oneself.
Often, even when we aren't fully aware of what this inner longing really means, and yet sometimes we can no longer live with it and tell ourselves that we have already found whom we were looking for. We fall in love. But we idealize the person we think the other to be, thinking that we have found our soulmate -- until a few months later, our false hopes lead to a letdown.
This becomes quite evident when one realizes that the same is observed in friendship.
When we meet someone and we take a liking to them, we're a lot more interested in them, and our hopes of our friendship are higher. We are more hopeful about the congeniality of the other's personality because we have not yet explored it in detail. At first we may seem more similar than we turn out to be later on because we broadly seem to understand each other - but it's those details which tell most of all about oneself, and only by paying attention to those details can one find out who someone really is.
Basically, friendship is a scale model of love.

I am aware this entry is in contradiction with one I've written earlier, but that's just a view from another viewpoint, and that viewpoint can be just as interesting.

A. A Comparison between Schizophrenia and Autism

Although there is some similarity in the symptoms between schizophrenia and autism, there is also a dichotomy in their causes: schizophrenics are thought to have a lack of glutamate function, while autistics are thought to have an excess. Glutamate is implicated in latent inhibition, the blocking of seemingly irrelevant stimuli. Autistics will only assimilate stimuli which are most relevant to them, while schizophrenics will be flooded by an overflow of irrelevant stimuli.
Obviously, latent inhibition impairs concentration, but it also enhances abstract thought. This is why autistics can’t think abstractly, while psychotics think too abstractly, so that they both have trouble communicating with others. In autistics, high latent inhibition may also lead to fear of novelty, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and lack of imagination, while in schizophrenics, low latent inhibition may also lead to delusions, paranoia, and thought disorder.
Glutamate decreases serotonin, modulates dopamine (increases dopamine in some areas and decreases it in others), increases acetylcholine, decreases noradrenaline, and decreases melatonin - these changes are all found in autism except for increased acetylcholine, which is decreased - in schizophrenia, the exact opposite of the effects of glutamate are seen except for increased melatonin. Autism and schizophrenia may be considered to have opposite chemical causes, even though many of their symptoms seem similar. Autism could potentially be treated by glutamate antagonists, just like schizophrenics are treated by glutamate agonists (atypical antipsychotics).

B. More on Schizophrenia

Psychotic depression, a relative of schizophrenia, has a neurological pathology which is very similar to that of schizophrenia, but in a milder version . Psychotic depression, like schizophrenia, is characterized by delusions, paranoia, and often hallucinations. Both schizophrenic and psychotically depressed people often hear voices, which will either judge them or order them. In psychotic depression, these will always be persecutory, while in schizophrenia, they may sometimes seem benevolent. In both, these may criticize the patient or tell him or her to commit suicide.
Both syndromes are caused primarily by a combination of stress and diathesis, although the diathesis (the genetic and neurological susceptibility to suffer from a condition) is usually more pronounced in schizophrenia than in psychotic depression. Both syndromes are caused primarily by a combination of stress and diathesis, although the diathesis (the genetic and neurological susceptibility to suffer from a condition) is usually more pronounced in schizophrenia than in psychotic depression. Schizophrenia can therefore be interpreted as a severe form of psychotic depression. The hallucinations and delusions that characterize is are either a manifestation of stress (eg thinking that the entire world is against the patient, or hearing voices which criticize the patient or encourage him or her to commit suicide) or, conversely, as a defense mechanism against it (eg thinking that one is sent for a mission or an imagined friend).
All symptoms of schizophrenia are a manifestation of stress, even though stress that induces schizophrenia in one person needn’t do so in all people. However, all people have susceptibility to schizophrenia, each having a different threshold of stress needed to cause it. This threshold may or may not be altered by other factors such as substance, but it is inherently there in each of us.
Research has shown that chronic stress leads to an increase of serotonin and noradrenaline and a decrease in glutamate, which are all seen in schizophrenia. Thus, one could say that anyone who suffers for a long time will become slightly schizotypal, although this is usually in such a mild form that it is not psychotic. Psychosis is still so common not only because evolution has preserved it, but also because it is not fully evolutionary.

In schizophrenia, imagination and reality merge. It is as if their dreams impinge on their waking days, which is why schizophrenics have less dream recall. This may be attributed to a disruption in the circadian biorhythm: normally, we can only distinguish imagination from reality when awake, but not in our sleep. One could say that all of us are schizophrenic, but our schizophrenic episodes are all restricted to our sleep. This could be why chronic insomnia can lead to psychosis, something sometimes seen in the manic episode of bipolar disorder. And while mania is associated with elevated glutamate, manic psychosis as well as schizophrenia are associated with reduced glutamate.
Glutamate is a neurotransmitter which enables us to distinguish imagination from reality, but schizophrenics have a deficit of this neurotransmitter. Normally, glutamate cycles from day to night, but in schizophrenics, this cycle is disrupted. The glutamate is one of the neurochemicals involved in the day-night cycle, its rhythms not only caused by but also causing it , which is why administration of glutamate may increase both wakefulness and sleep . During sleep, glutamate is normally counteracted by adenosine , which triggers, so to say, healthy nighttime psychosis.
We are all somewhat mad, but our madness usually occurs only in sleep: our insanity is usually safely relegated to our dreams. Although dreams have many more functions, they can also be said to be a deposition of psychosis. Arthur Schopenhauer said that "Dreams are brief madness and madness a long dreams.” Actually, it may be that dreams and madness have the same duration, but occur respectively during night and day - in psychosis, the order is reversed.
The involvement of adenosine in the day-night cycle also explains why adenosine agonists can alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia and why caffeine, an adenosine antagonist, worsens positive symptoms of schizophrenia . Although an acute administration of adenosine will cause a short-term decrease in glutamate, more chronic administration will cause an amplification of the glutamate rhythms. This is so because the adenosine agonist will have more effect if more adenosine is present. This principle applies to for every neurotransmitter: any neurotransmitter agonist will have more effect if it has more of the neurotransmitter to act upon.
Possibly, schizophrenia may largely be attributed to anomalies in circadian rhythms. In schizophrenia, this cycle is disrupted, so that restoring this cycle might reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia. Ironically, by by treating its nighttime symptoms, we may also be able to treat the daytime symptoms of schizophrenia. This is also one reason why melatonin has proven useful in the treatment of schizophrenia: melatonin is one of the most important chemicals involved in the biological clock. Melatonin is dubbed the “sleep hormone,” and low levels have been observed in schizophrenia as well as in depression. In addition to the voices, this is also a reason why schizophrenia have trouble sleeping. Furthermore, there is evidence that melatonin potentiates glutamate transmission.
An insufficiency of glutamate could cause both positive and negative symptoms, which are respectively delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, and thought disorder, and apathy, blunted affect, anhedonia (lack of pleasure) avolition (lack of will), alogia (saying little), and hypomimia (lacking mimic). The cooccurrence of these symptoms seems paradoxical because positive symptoms are caused by an excess of dopamine, and negative symptoms are caused by a shortage of dopamine. This apparent contradiction is resolved by the fact that glutamate is self-modulatory, meaning that the increase of glutamate in one brain area will cause a decrease of glutamate in another. As glutamate increases dopamine levels, this will likewise affect dopamine throughout the brain. This is clearly illustrated in how increased dopamine is found in the striatum and MPOA in schizophrenia, which is an effect caused by increased glutamate. The dichotomy of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia is proportional to the imbalance of glutamate.
The lack of dopamine in some brain areas which ensues from lack of glutamate can set in motion a vicious circle consisting of two separate cycles, together leading to the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. These cycles may occur as follows. (Mentioned symptoms may or may not be present, according to severity and type of schizophrenia.)

1) In brain areas where glutamate is decreased:

- glutamate ↓
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ dopamine ↓
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ GABA ↓
→ glutamate ↓
→ serotonin ↑
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ anhedonia
→ motor retardation
→ acetylcholine ↓
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ serotonin ↑
→ noradrenaline ↑
→ dopamine ↓
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ attention / concentration ↓
→ GABA ↓
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ serotonin ↑
→ noradrenaline ↑
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ hallucinations
→ anxiety
→ insomnia
→ serotonin ↑
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ glutamate ↓
→ acetylcholine ↓
→ GABA ↓
→ noradrenaline ↑
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ blunted affect
→ noradrenaline ↑
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ blunted affect
→ dissociation
→ inhibition
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ blunted affect
→ attention / concentration ↓
→ latent inhibition ↓
→ thought disorder
→ hallucinations
→ delusions
→ avolition
→ apathy

2) In brain areas where glutamate is increased:

- glutamate ↑
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ dopamine ↑
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ melatonin ↓
→ GABA ↑
→ glutamate ↑
→ serotonin ↓
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ obsessive-compulsive disorder
→ latent inhibition ↓
→ thought disorder
→ hallucinations
→ delusions
→ acetylcholine ↑
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ serotonin ↓
→ noradrenaline ↓
→ dopamine ↑
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ blunted affect
→ ACTH ↑
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ anxiety
→ GABA ↑
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ serotonin ↓
→ noradrenaline ↓
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ auditory hallucinations
→ blunted affect
→ serotonin ↓
NEUROLOGICAL:
→ glutamate ↑
→ acetylcholine ↑
→ GABA ↑
→ noradrenaline ↓
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ paranoia
→ obsessive-compulsive disorder
→ anxiety
→ noradrenaline ↓
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ attention / concentration ↓
→ memory ↓
→ melatonin ↓
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ insomnia
→ anxiety
→ depression
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
→ anxiety

GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, may have an important yet little recognized role in schizophrenia. GABA is implicated in the auditory pathways, and most hallucinations in schizophrenia are auditory. Also, it modulates latent inhibition : both an increase and decrease of GABA reduces it, which is why benzodiazepines, which act on the GABAA receptors, are weakly hallucinogenic. Moreover, withdrawal of Zolpidem, a benzodiazepine, may lead to both auditory and visual hallucinations. In schizophrenics as well as in people withdrawn from benzodiazepines (which can lead to delirium tremens) GABA receptors are decreased.

Psychiatry and psychology are just two ways of looking at the same phenomenon - the human mind. Emotions aren’t caused by chemicals, and those chemicals aren’t brought about by emotions, either: these chemicals were our emotions. Neurochemistry and psychology were just two facets of our emotions, not two distinct causes of our emotions.
The bidirectional causal relationship between emotions and chemical reactions has been a mistake psychologists and psychiatrists have made for many years. It’s not so that some depressions are caused by chemical imbalances and some are caused by emotional complexes - all depressions are caused by both, because one leads to the other. When one’s neurochemistry is influenced, so are one's thoughts - after all, our thought processes are neurochemistry.
Anyone can increase his levels of neurotransmitters through sheer concentration, in this way energizing oneself. In this way, one could also increase one’s motivation, although this in turn required motivation, so that this is, like all emotions, something which amplifies itself. Furthermore, increasing one's motivation makes one's life more stimulating, which increases motivation and so on - the opposite is also possible, a vicious circle which can lead to depression.

Romance should be a means of expression of love, not what comprises it; it is a means, not an end. It may enhance love, or even awaken it, but it cannot create it. Being in love should not be confused with love itself; it may lead to it or express it, but it isn’t true love (indeed, one can even be in love with someone and hate them for it). Brain scans show that being in love does not involve the more complex emotional processes of the cerebral cortex; it is a more primitive drive such as hunger. It may be associated with love, like sex, but it isn’t love. This doesn't mean being in love is something base -- but true love is something divine to which being in love can't compare.
Phenylethylamine, the most important substance involved in being in love, is addictive, but because being in love is usually temporary, it will also usually lead to dependence in time. Although phenylethylamine does not cause tolerance, romantic love in itself may as the PEA-levels drop back to normal after 3 to 18 months. Because of the ensuing withdrawal, the couple may see through the idealization they had of one another, which may cause a crisis in their relationship. One comes to realize that he or she as well is actually human and has human flaws. This often causes the couple to break up, and only if the more spiritual bond they had formed meanwhile or earlier was strong enough, they will remain together.
For people who stay in love for longer periods of time, often their entire lives, this is more continuous. Being in love is like a star: most of the time, it is luminous and short-lived, but when burns in a more gradual way it can last for billions of years. One of the most luminous stars in the galaxy, the Pistol Star, is a mere two million years old and has only three more million years to go before exploding in a supernova. Should we really be in awe? It might shine ten million times brighter than the sun, but it will never give birth to all the wonders of life the sun has in its ten thousand times longer lifespan. If you let your love shine in a more controlled way, it will last far more, and grow to become far more beautiful. With this, I don't mean that you should repress the feeling, but that you should realize that there's more to life but being in love. PEA is like wine: a glass a day may be healthy, but avoid addiction.
But romance does not necessitate falling in love: falling in love is an addiction to romance, and eventually, you have to break the habit on anything you’re addicted to - not necessarily the person, mind you, but being in love with that person. Furthermore, it should not be love which should follow from romance, but romance which should follow love, as an expression and augmentation of it. Both romance and sex are worthless without true love; they should therefore be founded upon one another like the layers of a pyramid.
Lust tends to drain us. This is so because of the refractory period that follows orgasm. While it causes an increase of endorphin which lasts for 48 hours, it also causes an increase of prolactin, to which the surge of endorphin and serotonin during and after orgasm contribute to. This hormone decreases levels of estrogen and testosterone, thus modulating sexual arousal. Both these sex hormones increase dopamine levels, so that prolactin decreases it, thus causing depression and anxiety.
An advantage of prolactin is that stimulates the oligodendrocyte precursor cells, which precede the oligodendrocytes, which in turn are responsible for the myelination of the central nervous system, including the brain. This will cause an increase in brain function. Because of this some go so far as to say that this meant that “sex makes us smart.” (Sex also increases levels of vasopressin, especially in men, a hormone thought to be involved in memory.) However, piracetam, a nootropic or smart drug, significantly reduces levels of prolactin, which is one way in which it increases motivation. As piracetam ameliorates brain function, it’s very unlikely that the effect of prolactin is usually that significant. In pregnancy, however, prolactin rises are so significant that they are likely involved in the increase of brain function observed in pregnant women (for instance, an increase in dendritic spikes - which receive signals - on the neurons in the medial preoptic area or MPOA). Pregnant rats had an increased ability to find their way through mazes. However, prolactin may also be a significant hormonal cause of postpartum depression.
Prolactin levels are reduced by dopamine, but are also increased by serotonin, which is why SSRIs often cause sexual dysfunction. The increase of prolactin and concomitant decrease of dopamine is the main cause of post-orgasmic emptiness, a feeling of listlessness often associated with sense of guilt.
This feeling is also in part caused by a temporary reduction in neocortical activity, especially in the orbitofrontal cortex. This brain area is responsible for decisions, emotion, and expectation. (Frontotemporal dementia, which involves either aspontaneity or disinhibition, is thought to be associated with damage to the OFC.) This effect will contribute to the impulsivity caused by the drop of dopamine, which may also alter the perception of one’s lover for the worse. This is why a couple often experiences crises after having sex for the first time.
This decrease of dopamine also corresponds with Freud’s concept of sublimation: the dopamine (libido) which is not invested into sex can be invested into other anything else, such as science and art, or even, ironically, love. Lust is garbage that aught to be recycled: in itself, it is only harmful to one’s spiritual development.
However, many people may have experienced that having sex with someone one really loves will not drain them, but conversely energize them. This is only so if their love has attained a deeper level, involving the more profound emotional responses of the cortex rather than being restricted to the primordial pleasure mechanisms of the hypothalamus. Intercourse will then lead not only to a physical but also to a spiritual connection with the person: not just because of the pleasure one experienced oneself, but also because of the pleasure one gave the other.
As always, there is a psychiatric as well as a psychological version of this explanation. When one has intercourse one’s levels of oxytocin rise, in proportion with how much one love’s the person one has intercourse with. Oxytocin, in addition to surging during orgasm, is also released in hugging, caressing or kissing, and for this reason is sometimes called “cuddle hormone” or more commonly “love hormone” (the former might be more apt, as PEA is already often called the “love hormone”). Oxytocin is released not only in sexual arousal (in response to someone of the other gender), but also in anything involving any form of love (for instance, also in response to a child or pet).
Although oxytocin is not directly responsible for sexual arousal, it is certainly associated with it. Even a couple whose relationship is purely sensual will therefore feel greater affection for each other during sex. Oxytocin also induces penile erection, so that it is normal for men to have penile erection even when not feeling particularly sexually aroused by, but merely feeling affection towards their lover.
This hormone, which is sadly mostly known for causing uterine contractions (like dopamine is sadly mostly known for being implicated in Parkinson’s disease), has many more functions. Oxytocin is involved in any form of social enjoyment, and a lack of it is thought to play a role in autism. It does not show an average during positive emotion, but does show an average decrease during negative emotion, meaning that low levels are associated with distress. High levels of oxytocin have also been implicated in forgetfulness and poor concentration (which may be linked to its antagonism of prolactin) and eating disorders, increasing craving of sweet-tasting food. Because of this latter effect, obese women may generally be more sociable.
Not coincidentally, oxytocin reduces prolactin secretion, thus partly offsetting post-orgasmic emptiness as well as the refractory period associated with prolactin (so that one will also feel more frequent sexual arousal towards someone one loves). It also stimulates endorphin production while reducing endorphin dependence, which is one reason why the increase of endorphin is much greater after sex than after masturbation.
It needs not be said that the love hormone released during cuddling depends on how much one loves the person in question; try as you might, you won’t manage very well to increase your levels of oxytocin if the person you’re cuddling is your worst enemy. It’s also very likely that oxytocin drops in rape.
In masturbation, oxytocin rises as well, but for only a few minutes - except, possibly, in autosexual narcissism. That the love hormone is released during masturbation proves that, as Freud said, autoeroticism is present in each of us.
Oxytocin has a bidirectional relation with the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone: oxytocin increases the production of testosterone and estrogen, and testosterone and especially estrogen increase the production of oxytocin. In addition, the effect of oxytocin depends on estrogen: oxytocin could not work without it. This is why women, having more estrogen, experience the effects of oxytocin to a greater extent: that’s why they’re more sociable, and more sensitive to touch. In this women have a certain hormonal benefit over men, especially in social interaction. However, testosterone also has benefits, and estrogen decreases testosterone levels (though progesterone increases it).
Testosterone, in the right amounts, might have other benefits, however, such as increase of spatial ability (thought to be associated with an increase of “place neurons” in the hippocampus) and improvement of attention and memory. It’s unlikely that this latter effect can be attributed to its effect on oxytocin, however, as oxytocin’s has a negative effect on memory and attention only at high levels.
However, paradoxically, this does not mean that testosterone reduces the activity of estrogen; the opposite is true. This is one reason why androgen increases libido in both sexes. Testosterone increases estrogen receptor activity. This in turn increases oxytocin receptor activity, but in spite of this, testosterone suppresses oxytocin as well as vasopressin. In abstinence of sexual pleasure which is purely physical, without spiritual love being involved, levels of testosterone rise, even after several weeks, which may be why abstinence in men has been associated by some studies with a social insensitivity which is characteristic of autism. That testosterone suppresses oxytocin is likely why men are far more susceptible to autism (or savantism). That autists, and especially savants, often have enhanced cognitive skills may also be an effect of testosterone. As said, autism is associated with decreased levels of oxytocin, so that it could potentially “cure” autism. (When in the bloodstream, however, it does not reach the brain).
As said, testosterone and oxytocin both increase levels of dopamine (and vice versa, which is how dopamine reduces social anxiety). However, in one aspect, testosterone and oxytocin are antipodal: testosterone reduces serotonin so as to cause aggression, while oxytocin increase serotonin so as to cause compassion. These hormones can be seen as a chemical representation of the male animus and the female anima: the difference in these hormones between the sexes explains why 5,8% of males are psychopaths (suffer from antisocial/sociopath disorder), compared to only 1,2% of females, and why 87% of prison inmates are males.
The increase of oxytocin after sex also causes an increase of serotonin. This is a two-way process, however, as serotonin is also in part responsible for the increase of oxytocin and vasopressin. Another chemical contributing to the increase of these latter two hormones is GABA, gamma-aminobutyric acid, an anxiolytic neurotransmitter. The increase of this chemical plays part in the sense of calm following sex.
Oxytocin increases levels of testosterone and estrogen. This may in part be how it negates the post-coital hangover. In addition, oxytocin directly increases levels of dopamine, to some extent by increasing levels of nitric oxide, which stimulates the production of dopamine.
Oxytocin is released not only in orgasm but also in foreplay, so that the longer its duration, the less one will experience exhaustion or the more one will feel energized afterwards. What’s more, oxytocin reduces cravings, thus decreasing opioid dependence (exogenous as well as endogenous, endorphin). It therefore also reduces lust, both during and after sex: the more one loves the person one has sex with, the less one will really care about the intercourse itself. Orgasm just becomes part of it. Pleasure no longer matters, superseded by a longing for the intimacy of sexual union. It’s still a similar feeling, but without the craving of lust. The need for more, known is “appetitive pleasure,” is replaced by the enjoyment of the current, “consummatory pleasure.” The former tends only to bring misery, and manifests in an anxiety which may be unpleasant when resisted, while the former not only brings joy, but is joy in itself.
Modern civilization has turned sexuality - in fact, all instinct, as well as intellect - into something monstrous, a tumor. Counterintuitive as it sounds, Theodore Kaczinsky was right when he said that excessive sex does not satisfy natural needs. Our sexuality has become unnatural: we have turned the pyramid upside down. Perhaps, before civilization formed, humans lived in harmony with this pyramid: they didn’t have time for some maniacal quest for pleasure, as it was a struggle every day just to survive.
According to Buddhist beliefs, craving is the cause of all suffering. Craving is the desire for more, and therefore the dissatisfaction of what you already have. It is the rejection of the present for the sake of the future. Craving is therefore not just the root of all suffering: it is suffering, for suffering is the failure to accept the here and now and enjoy it.
True love transcends one’s self. It strives not just towards one’s own good, but that of someone else.