Friendship Time Limits?

[Scarlett]

I have noticed that when I make a new friend I experience the sort of highs you get when first in love- and they do too. ie- lots of effort, appreciation etc and then seemingly bang on 6 months, all the enthusiasm stops and it plateaus and becomes a bit more normal. Has anyone else experienced this, either with a friendship or a relationship?

[Scarlett]

See I'm not sure that 'it just happens' is a good explanation. I think there must be some sort of biological reason for the high which cannot be sustained - and then at the 6 month point, something changes, and is replaced by something else. Which could be linked to love hormones acting in a similar way but with the purpose being for the couple to mate?

[Sqad]

Scarlett......you are looking for a scientific answer to an emotional situation.........there isn't one.

What turns one off is a complicated neuropharmacological action in the brain of which we have little or no control.

[Scarlett]

Sqad - but science explains everything, including emotions, surely! We are but bunches of cells controlled by our genes, hormones, environment etc. why would emotions be a separate thing to science?

[Sqad]

Emotions are NOT separate from science, it is just that scientists haven't unraveled all the complexities to give you the answer that your are looking for.

Some relations fail, for a variety of reasons, others remain in a euphoric state and others.......well, they just get on with it.
One thing is certain...there is little that one can do about it when it starts to perish.

[Sqad]

http://www.smatthewliao.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pharmainduction.pdf

There you are Scarlett.....a bit of bedtime reading.

[pixie373]

I agree with slappy. What you're describing sounds like a romantic relationship. I don't understand why you would get a "high" with a platonic friendship. That's a relationship that gradually grows- you don't suddenly "make" a new friend. Not after preschool, anyway. It's more gradual than that.

[Scarlett]

I have! You meet someone and you click, and from that point on you start doing things together, and pretty soon you are inseparable. And then you do everything together and think each other are amazing- for 6 months! And then it kind of... stops. And it's not romantic! maybe it's just me?!

[Marijn]

It's not just you. I's probably what Peaspeculiars said on page 1.

[Marijn]

It's