What is love? Love comes in many different forms. The people you love are usually the people you feel most happy to be with, whom you like to spend the most time with. The people you couldn't bear to lose. And the people you care about the most.

On the other hand, you can also still really love someone even if they treat you badly or make you feel sad. You can feel love in different ways – for your parents, your family, your friends, or for a pet, as well as for a partner.

Loving and being in love
Loving someone isn’t the same as being in love with them. Being in love is the way you might feel at the start of a relationship, when you only see the positive things about the other person and you walk round with your head in the clouds. Over time this feeling changes, and you have a deeper, steadier, tender, caring feeling for the other person – you love them.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
You can fall in love with someone you hardly know. Love can also slowly develop out of a friendship. And sometimes people only fall in love after they’ve made love together.

Usually love develops in stages
First comes the passion of sexual attraction, then the dreamy overwhelming in-love stage, and then finally the deeper attachment that develops over time and can last for years or a lifetime.

Read more stories on love and relationships.