How To Tell If You Love Someone: 20 Signs

Love is something each of us desires and most of us need to enjoy a happy, fulfilling life. Love is a gift that feels as amazing when we give it as when we receive it. When you have the blessing of loving someone and that someone loving you back, it can change how you view your life and your future. Love also changes your friendships and relationships with others. Whether you are aware of it or not, you love with your brain as well as your heart. It feels special on both accounts.

Researchers have found scientific proof that your brain and your body go through changes when you love someone. When you feel loved by someone, you think about that person often, and you're willing to put up with a lot because you love them. Sometimes things work out well with love, and other times, it causes immense heartbreak.

Most of the time, you will "just know" that you love someone and sometimes you don't even understand the reason why you love someone. Keep reading to learn about some indications of love from science and some signs of love from the heart, so you can determine how to tell if you love someone.

How to tell if you love someone from a scientific standpoint

Have you ever wondered what's going on in your brain when you experience feelings of love for someone? Researchers believe that love creates many changes in your brain. As those very first feelings of love start tingling and you experience feelings of euphoria, your brain begins to release dopamine.

Dopamine is a chemical that works as a messenger between your brain cells. Chemical messengers such as dopamine are called neurotransmitters. They shuttle back and forth in the spaces in between cells. At some point, dopamine binds itself to docking-station molecules called receptors (named so because they receive dopamine and other neurotransmitters). The receptors relay that signal from one cell to its neighbor. Two tiny parts of the brain that together wouldn't equal the size of a postage stamp produce dopamine. One part produces dopamine that helps our movements, and the other sends dopamine into the area of your brain when you experience the rewarding feelings of love.

Inside the brain, the message translates as, "That felt very nice! More loving, please!" In this way, our brains change our behavior in ways that affect the brain's reward system. The more you express and feel loved, the more you want to express and feel love.

When your body enjoys those loving feelings, there is also a hint of activity going on in another part of the brain that's linked to obsessive thinking, which is why it's sometimes hard to let go when we've truly been loved.

As loving relationships continue, just thinking about someone that you love activates your brain's reward center. In turn, neurotransmitters activate areas of the brain related to your ability to have healthy attachments with human beings and animals.

Neurotransmitters like dopamine also activate other bodily systems like your heart rate and sweat glands. So, if the love bug has bitten you, your heart may race, and you may feel sweaty and anxious. There's no need to worry that you have a medical problem. It's your body and your brain's normal reaction to being in love.

How to tell if you love someone from a practical standpoint

The many changes within your body and your brain occur without you knowing or thinking about them. That can make it difficult to tell if you love someone, but fortunately, many other, more practical ways indicate whether you love someone. Following are 20 practical signs that you may love someone.

1. You want your family and friends to like your new person. For most new couples, getting to meet their significant other's friends for the first time tells them a lot about how the person they love feels. If you get as far as meeting the parents, that takes the relationship to a whole new level.

2. You "talk up" your new love every chance you get. You're in that stage of loving everything about your partner. 

3. To some degree, when your love gets to celebrate amazing achievements, they mean just as much to you because you were an important part of the journey.

4. Whenever you think you want to go somewhere or do something, you immediately imagine doing it with your partner. Every new experience brings the chance to create new memories to put into your book of life. The sheer anticipation of trying something new makes you giddy.

5. You like them, and they like you back. Nearly everyone has a crush on someone at some point in their lifetime. How awesome is it when your crush is crushing back on you? Celebrate the fact that you both dared to express an interest in one another. A lack of courage might have driven you apart.

6. You miss your partner when you must be away from each other. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and when you get the chance to reconnect, it feels even more wonderful. You long for more days together than days apart.

7. You notice that you're becoming a better person. When someone truly loves you, they don't hold you back. They enhance your inner personality and bring out the best in you. Other people are bound to see that developing, and you will too.

8. You've been jealous a time or two. Some amount of jealousy is healthy in a relationship. If jealousy doesn't turn into suspicion, it can be a healthy thing. It sends a message to the other person that you are their one and only. It makes you want to be their only too.

9. Your levels of mutual investment and commitment are on an even keel. One of you doesn't have stronger feelings than the other. Your relationship is progressing at a healthy pace, and you are both on the same page with what you want now and in your future.

10. You love gazing into one another's eyes. Eye contact is a unique and special kind of communication all its own. When you're in love, you enjoy gazing into your partner's eyes at dinner, at bedtime, and in the sleepy early morning times.

11. You're willing to try new things. Being in love gets us out of our comfort zones. Love can set the stage for things you may never have tried, like tasting octopus, going zip-lining, or swimming with the stingrays. These will be the stories that last for generations.

12. You're willing to go to the "gross zone" together. Love life isn't all unicorns and rainbows. Some days it's more picking your toes, tweezing ticks out of your skin, shielding the smell of farts, and cleaning up vomit. You love someone during times of ick and bliss.

13. Your empathy for them grows bigger every day. Your love has opened up and shared their hopes and fears. Your person is on your mind every morning, and you give them a quick call to wish them a good day or flood their phone with a stream of sweet emoticons.

14. You find their little quirks endearing. You love the way they flip their hair or motion with their hands. You look for their mannerisms in their other family and wonder which of them will pass down to your someday children.

15. You feel naturally safe and warm around them. You automatically run to the other one when you feel scared or insecure. After a bad day, you want a hug and some downtime with the one you love to make everything right with the world.

16. You see the other person as an extension of yourself. You begin spending so much time together that you feel that you are one with each other. You begin to finish each other's sentences and order each other's drinks or meals. You develop more in common, and your differences become smaller.

17. You start planning for the future. You may not have said those three little words yet, but you find yourself thinking about what your future with the other person looks like.

18. You long for intimacy and sexual exclusivity. You enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that a special and unique intimacy rests with just the two of you.

19. You worry when they're down, hurt, sick, or upset. You'd give anything to make it better if you could, but you'll settle for just being there.

20. You can forgive and get over being mad. Love holds no record of wrongs. In a loving relationship, you can forgive each other, learn from your mistakes, and move forward together.

There's no single way to know if you love someone, but if you want to explore your feelings in more depth, the counselors at Regain are waiting to be matched with you and help you sort through it all. Regain is an online therapy platform that is both affordable and convenient. No need to travel to a therapist's physical office or skip work for an appointment. With Regain, all you need is an internet connection and a session can be scheduled for you or for you and your partner.

Even those in healthy relationships can benefit from online therapy. Keeping the lines of communication open and talking through any obstacles that have come your way with an online therapist can strengthen your relationship. Many couples have found success in online therapy and find that their partnership works more smoothly.

Takeaway

There's just not one sign that you love someone; rather it's a culmination of many feelings and experiences that demonstrate that you love someone. The beauty of it is that when you love well and you love enough, it comes back to you in spades.