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Scroll down for video. A new study by dating website eHarmony has identified the five stages of love - butterflies, building, assimilation, honesty and stability. Those taking part were asked to complete a psychological test to determine their true feelings. The findings, collated by dating website eHarmony, were grouped into five stages. Participants were asked questions about their behaviour and lifestyle, in order to uncover the impact love has on a person's health at each stage.

Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulous said the different stages of love impact on our health, causing weight loss, a lack of sleep and raised stress levels. And the findings suggest of the 33 million Britons currently in a relationship, two per cent - or , people - were found to be enjoying stage one.


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Marked by intense infatuation and sexual attraction, symptoms noted by couples included weight loss 30 per cent and a lack of productivity 39 per cent. Biologically, it's reported that during this early stage of dating, both men and women create more of the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen.

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As a result more than half - 56 per cent - noted an increase in their libido. Dr Papadopoulos told MailOnline: As the initial attraction gives way to learning more about one another, the honeymoon stage subsides and a couple begin to build their relationship. The body releases neurochemicals called monoamines, which speed up heart rate, trigger rushes of intense pleasure and replicate the effects of Class A drugs.

The biological effect culminates in a feeling of 'happy anxiety', where people can think of little else than their blossoming relationship.

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Forty-four per cent of the study participants noted a lack of sleep while 29 per cent reported a their attention span had been adversely affected. And there is a sense of happy anxiety, where you feel drunk on love. Having established whether the other person is 'right', stage three forces a couple to question whether the 'relationship' itself is right.

Questions over the future of the union and forming boundaries in the relationship can lead to a rise in stress levels, reported by 27 per cent of those taking part in the study. Stage one increases libido, while stage two releases chemicals that replicate the effects of Class A drugs. Love can also impact weight loss, stress levels and sleep patterns. She said this combined with stage four, where people open up showing the 'real you' sees the first real rise in stress levels and anxiety.

Opening up completely triggered feelings of doubt and increased vulnerability in 15 per cent of participants. But if a couple can weather the emotional rollercoaster of the first four stages, the fifth and final stage, stability, brings with it increased levels of trust and intimacy.

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Biologically, vasopressin - a powerful hormone released by men and women during orgasm - strengthens feelings of attachment. The fifth stage, stability, brings with it increased levels of trust and intimacy after weathering the emotional rollercoaster of a relationship. The Love Diet is driven by involuntary hormone production and conscious food deprivation. When a woman meets a man she finds desirable, a natural chemical rush ensues.

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Some women say that when they experience the suppressed appetite as a result of meeting a new beau, they take advantage of the boost and turn their high into full-fledged crash dieting. So then you start checking yourself out in the mirror a million times a day, and you can get consumed with the thought of what you're going to look like the next time you see that person, what outfit you're gonna wear. But the ultimate thought is, 'What if this person sees me naked? Matteo name has been changed , a handsome year-old gay man who works as a high-end clothing buyer, knows the feeling well.

Fisher explains the "merry-go-round rush" as a dopamine surge that accompanies romantic attraction. Michelle, completely unfamiliar with Fisher's work, describes this feeling from her own experience. You go chasing that rush instead of chasing after that bag of Oreos," she says. After a very brief pause, she adds, "The Oreos come in after you realize the guy is a douche bag who doesn't clean his bathroom and is co-dependent on his mother.

But in the beginning, that feeling is an appetite suppressant, and a suppressant of your ability to recognize another person's defects.


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But it's a cool feeling, a combination of attraction and excitement. Mariella replies First, change your criteria. It might be better to pause your rigorous appraisal process and learn to make friends first. If choices about the people we grow to value in our lives were all based on such speedy assessments imagine the number of wonderful characters who might slip our grasp. The same is true when it comes to relationships. Love at first sight can be a terrible deception. We have to embrace the mystery and surprises along with the frustrations.

Then again as someone slowly but inexorably slipping back to the analogue world wherever possible, I may not be the best person to advise on seeking a mate online. In my youth we were limited by our location and chance encounters. Your state of mind, your current desires, the signals that inform your pheromones and the ones that dampen them are influenced as much by circumstances as chemistry.