Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A consultant psychiatrist said, “People who are isolated or disconnected from others are at an increased risk of dying prematurely. Whereas people who are in healthy relationships and experiencing love live longer and stay healthier, as shown in several studies across the world.”
The consultant psychiatrist Dr Pawan Rathi made the above remark during a special webinar on understanding of love in Valentine week. The webinar was organised by Create Stories Social Welfare Society on Friday.
Dr Rathi was the keynote speaker who explained how love affects our body and ways to identify unhealthy relationships.
Sharing the need for the seminar, coordinator of the webinar Deepak Sharma said, “We often stay in unhealthy relationships with the fear of living alone and on the other hand, fail to understand healthy relationships with love. So, this webinar was organised for free to help people.”
Dr Rathi said, “It is very difficult to define love as it has many meanings for everyone and the definitions are different. We find love in those whose attitudes, likes, dislikes or emotional behaviour are similar to ours, there are very few people who are attracted to opposite things.”
When undergoing a break-up, he suggested that people should not drown in negativity and instead, move ahead by taking positive lessons from every event of life.
“Give yourself time because your first need is yourself,” Dr Rathi said.
Stress management with love
“Love is a better way to manage stress,” Dr Rathi said. He adds that the way a person handles stress and problems in life changes when one is in a relationship.
“In a good relationship there is sharing, understanding, which keeps us healthy,” Dr Rathi said.
He further says that to make a relationship strong it is necessary to have: trust, honesty, and respect.
“Most of the people who are in love feel very happy during Valentine's week. This is because love is a feeling that affects different types of neurotransmitters in our brain,” Dr Rathi said.
Love is blind, so many times a person in love does not understand the logical thing many times because we are cut off from the world and our attention gets focused on one person, he adds.
Love Hormones
“Dopamine plays the biggest role in all these effects and our feelings,” Dr Rathi said. He adds that dopamine is a very important neurotransmitter in the reward pathway.
“This neurotransmitter is released over a period of time, as if a person gets a lottery of one crore, then he will feel very happy. This neurotransmitter becomes more active when we spend more time with a person with whom we like it,” Dr Rathi said.
He also says that in addition to dopamine, there are some other chemicals like adrenal and steroids, which are released when there is a break in love or a relationship. These are stress hormones and when these hormones are in the system for a long time in a person then they cause depression and start turning towards anxiety.
“Also oxytocin and vasopressin are released when in love more often. Oxytocin is the main hormone that causes bonding,” Dr Rathi said.
He adds that oxytocin is the hormone released when a mother breastfeeds her baby. “There is also a reason that increases the importance of breastfeeding,” Dr Rathi said.
He adds that these hormones are also released by holding a partner's hand, looking into the eyes, or even hugging. “Partners who spend such time with each other have better bonding,” Dr Rathi said.
He also says that these hormones reduce stress hormones and prevent depression and anxiety.
Love makes heart stronger
“Many researches have found that people who are in good relationships are less prone to heart disease, health issues and a lot of problems. These issues are more common in singles,” Dr Rathi said.
Benefits of good and healthy relationship
Better control of blood pressure
Our anxiety and many disorders are caused by serotonin, which love keeps under control.
Depression is very rare in a happy relationship because there is sharing.
People who are in love want to make themselves good and want to live well. People in love go less towards addiction, whereas in singles, addiction and substance abuse is more common.
The hormones released in love increase immunity, in such people, cough-cold and many diseases are less seen. Immunity increases quickly when triggered with love hormones.
In a good relationship, the partners take care of each other and because you have a responsibility then you take care of yourself. You also have a better social life.
You will be more stressed in an unhealthy relationship and many times single people also release this good hormone through their hobbies and practices.
Sign of unhealthy relationship
Lack of trust in each other.
Abuse and torture in any way.
Inability to speak or voice an opinion because of fear of upsetting your partner.
Putting the responsibility of your growth on your partner.
Fear of a partner in any way.
