Falling in love is such a strange, beautiful, and complicated thing. It could happen anywhere, at any time, with anyone. From this, love may spark a relationship.  

Alongside the relationship emerges the lasting love and attachment that follows closely behind it.

You find yourself feeling more attracted to them than you’ve felt to anyone in your entire life. Every time and moment with them feels like the best you’ve spent. 

It truly does seem like you’re going to spend the rest of your life, the rest of eternity with this person. It’s a truly euphoric feeling, what some describe as similar to a type of high.

While many think it’s true love, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not. In fact, you’re probably experiencing what’s known as “the honeymoon phase”.

The honeymoon phase occurs at the beginning of every relationship. The love is fresh, the feelings newly bloomed, and it feels like right now you’re the most attracted to them you’ll ever be. 

However, how do you know you’re in the honeymoon phase?

One of the tell-tale signs of the honeymoon phase is that everything in the relationship seems scarily perfect, almost like a fairy-tale.

Unfortunately, this is not by choice, and is instead due to the high amount of dopamine (the pleasure hormone) that is rushed into your brain with every interaction, causing every touch and every look from your partner to feel like the first one you’ve ever had.

All the dopamine in the brain and emotions you feel make it seem as though your partner has no flaws, which, in turn, prevents things like arguments, disagreements, and being mad at or upset with each other, which makes it all seem perfect, or too good to be true. 

Unfortunately, everyone has their flaws, including your partner. You just haven’t gotten a chance to believe that.

Another telltale sign is that you are incapable of getting them out of your mind. You constantly crave their presence, and while this could be normal, you do an unhealthy amount. And once you possess that presence, you don’t want to let it go. 

Hate to say, that’s the honeymoon phase. The last and most common sign of the honeymoon phase is that you two are always talking about the future. Talking about how many kids you’ll have, when you’ll get married, what kind of house, and things like that.

Sadly, this just sets expectations of an unrealistic future, and both partners are usually unhappy when these expectations aren’t met. The majority of the time, the honeymoon phase lasts from around one to three months or more, depending on the circumstance.

But after that, that’s when things begin to go downhill. The arguments begin, you start noticing things you never did before, and slowly, but surely, everything begins to crumble. 

And then suddenly, the future you two made, the facade, the beautiful white picket fence, and the golden retriever you were supposed to get are all just a memory of what was supposed to be. 

However, if things like arguments and disagreements are shown early in the relationship and are able to be worked out, then that’s a good sign because it shows you’re able to solve issues with your partner, and the relationship will be more stable later on. 

Overall, the honeymoon phase is something every relationship will experience. There will be a period of time where everything seems perfect, but it’s up to you whether you’ll make it past that  phase or not. 

If it seems incredibly too good to be true, it is, trust your gut.