Myths about Love

Myth 1
"You will always know when you are in love with each other". This is very commonly held belief. Classmates or colleagues become confused whether they are in love or not after moving closely together for some time. I can remember the stories of a few friends who married another person, and became desperate that the close friendship they had with a class mate was indeed love. At least two such couples showed courage to separate, and later marry their true love.

Any emotion has a physiological level of increased arousal and a cognitive (thinking) explanation for this arousal. Often this attribution goes wrong and love may be wrongly labelled as either lust or intense form of ordinary friendship (similar to other friends of same sex). This is the cause of confusion.

Myth 2.
This is not always true. Pain, anger, ambivalence and frustration about partner's behavior occurs in love as well as in other forms of friendships. Passionate love is intense, but it can take you to heights of pleasure or pain and anguish.

Myth 3.
Many people assert that 'true love will last forever'. It may be true, but not always. Just because the intensity of feeling is diminishing, one should not conclude that it was not true love. Passionate love tends to be strong in the early phase, but as the emotional bond strengthens, companionate love propels the relationship in the later phase.