I'm a closet (not anymore!) 80s fan and it's full of power rock, big hair ballads about someone finally finding "the love of a lifetime" and the like. For the record, I like 80s pop and new wave, not the Ratt or Winger kind of stuff!
All of us who came of age in the 80s saw all the love affairs like David Coverdale and Tawny Kitane fizzle out. Their songs endured; alas, not their love!
Studies have shown that sexual attraction starts to fade after the first year or so and is usually fairly weak by three years. And love itself is over in approximately ten years. I'm not sure how all this is decided. Is it divorce statistics? Questionnaires? Phone interviews?
But what is now known is that love can actually last a lifetime and scientists have the brain scans to prove it!
Researchers showed people photos of their partners and scanned their brains to monitor their reactions. The brains of couples together for two decades were compared to couples in the first bloom of love. They found that 10% of the long-term couples had the same reactions when shown the pictures, as the new couples.
Which means love can last a lifetime.
That's the positive news.
I know I'm being a bit glass-is-half-empty here but I think the less positive news is that 90% of the couples who were together long term has less of a good reaction to pictures of their loved ones! Say it ain't so!
Tell Us
How long have you been with your partner or spouse? Do you REALLY feel the same way now, as you did in the beginning? What has changed? What hasn't?