Crushes vs Falling in Love

[Laima]

Hello,

So, I’ve had crushes before, but I was wondering...how do you know when you are in love with someone? And how is falling in love different than having a crush?

[Jacob]

Hi Laima!

My answer is that the only difference is language.

We have lots of feelings about people we're attracted to and people we care about. Those feelings can feel familiar, or unfamiliar, intense or subtle, slow-burning or instantaneously consuming and we can't always put them into words.

So when you look into how you are feeling and ask "is this love or is this a crush" that doesn't have to dictate how you treat that person, or how you move forward, all it means is "i think this feeling is similar to what people describe when they say crush".

For me personally crushing describes that feeling of attraction and appreciation you have for someone at a distance. You don't really know them, but there are things about them that just make you feel good. It might become something, or it might not. Different peoples ideas of love, might also come or not come into that.

Love is just a really loaded word for me, and I find that people use it very differently so I just try to describe my feelings in more specific ways.

E.g: "I want to get to know you more", "I care about you a lot", "I like your hair", "Thank you for giving me food"