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People often mistake attachment, comfort, or infatuation for love, which is a complex feeling. However, a mistaken understanding of this beautiful feeling often leads to disappointment or a broken heart. In this article, you can read about the things that are frequently confused with love.
Comfort and safety
Love is often characterized by a feeling of comfort and safety, but other emotions can also cause these feelings. For instance, the desire to alleviate loneliness can lead a person to believe they are in love when they meet someone new or someone who is interested in them. However, in reality, this is not love but rather infatuation, which fills the inner emptiness and provides pleasant feelings of protection, reliability, satisfaction, and coziness.
It is important to note that many people attempt to reconcile with their ex-partners because they miss the feeling of comfort and safety. The person wants to experience those feelings again, leading them to believe that they still love their partner, even if they recognize that they are not a good match or their relationship has no future. As soon as the desire for comfort and safety associated with the previous partner subsides, the person realizes that their love has faded.
Jealousy
When a person observes someone they previously showed little interest in starting a relationship with someone else, they may develop possessive feelings towards them. They suddenly feel drawn to the person, even if they had rejected them before.
However, it’s incorrect to equate these feelings to love. The primary driving force behind such behavior is jealousy. While jealousy is similar to love in its complexity, it can result in a range of emotions, including sadness, anger, and disappointment.
Psychologist Christine Magaldi has suggested that people often desire what they cannot have. Therefore, when someone they desire becomes unavailable, a person who was previously indifferent can become jealous. But once those feelings subside, they realize that they were not genuinely in love.
Good sex
Having good sex can occur with both a loved partner and someone barely known. However, individuals often mistake sexual pleasure as love after a satisfying encounter. The surge of emotions, attraction, and longing to be near the person more frequently can be overwhelming. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that sexual compatibility does not necessarily translate to love. This is particularly true if the feelings only emerge during intimacy and vanish once the encounter is over.
Interest
People may seek romantic experiences to break the monotony and boredom of life. In their search for variety, they may mistake a new acquaintance as a love-at-first-sight situation. This can lead to daydreaming, efforts to gain attention, and attempts to impress, all in the pursuit of spicing up their life.
Regrettably, it’s common for people to quickly lose interest in their new partner, and realize that their romantic experiences were not rooted in love, but rather a means of adding excitement to their life.
Unrealistic Expectations
The sensation of being in love with someone can often be a result of unrealistic expectations and self-created illusions. This usually occurs when individuals enter into relationships with partners they don’t know very well. They tend to create an idealized version of their partner in their mind, fantasize about them, and expect them to fulfill all their expectations in reality.
However, in most instances, the idealized version of their partner is far from reality. As people begin to comprehend this, doubts about their love for their partner can arise. It’s possible that their romantic feelings were nothing more than unrealistic expectations that resulted in disappointment.
Thirst for male attention
Some women can become obsessed with male attention, as their self-esteem, satisfaction, and comfort are dependent on it. Such women may believe that they love a man if he shows them increased interest and provides them with the attention they crave.
However, once a new partner loses interest or ends the relationship, attention-seeking individuals realize that their feelings were not genuine love. Unfortunately, this can make it difficult for them to establish and maintain healthy relationships.
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