At what age can a person truely experience love?

[MegaMadness]

It seems like at younger and younger ages people are claiming to be in love with their boyfriend/girlfriend. So at what age a person can truely experience love?

I honestly have no idea. I'm 15 years old and I've experienced crushses before, but recently I've met someone and this time it was different. I think I love him. But part of me says I'm too young.

[Sea Monkey]

In my opinion, love can be experienced at any age. But I would say a relationship for 2 years at least is *True* love.

That's my opinion.

[her_beautiful_mistake]

^^ I don't think that's true at all. That implies you cannot feel "true love" until you've been with someone for two years. Nonsense.

I don't think there is an age you can put on when you can fall in love.

[i_am_waves]

I believe love can be experienced at any age, however, I think our own concept of true love changes and evolves as we grow older. True love might not mean the same thing when you're 50 as it did when when you were 15, but that doesn't mean it's not real to you at 15. Some teenagers take it a little too far when they claim to be in love with their boyfriend/girlfriend on the same day they start going out, but I definitely believe that teenagers have the capacity to fall in love.

[Composure]

The wiser the age, the wiser the love.

[Fictional]

I fell in love when I was thirteen. I have many friends my own age (fifteen/sixteen) who say they've never been in love. It depends on the person.

[Pelios]

I don't really know take for example my sister. She met her now fiancé when she was 15 and now she is 21 he is 22 and are planning their wedding for when they finish college. But I came up with my own theory, there are different types of love someone experiences thoughout their life I just think 15 year olds don't quiet experience true love until later in life. Now I'm not judging on age I just feel 15 year olds are going though alot of changes already and they tend o get confused.

[Marshmellow]

I don't think 'love' really classifies at an age. But they do say, if a crush lasts longer than six months, you're in love.

I've never experienced love, so I can't say.

However, I do feel people often mistake 'lust' for 'love.' They're two completely different things.

[purplekc95]

(: It's different for everybody just remeber "Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful."

[Brandon]

No such thing as "true" love. It reminds me of Cinderella or some kind of cheesy children's story. I experience love on a daily basis. My friends love me, my family loves me, I love my friends and family, I love my car, my computer, my watch, etc.

[Kyeto-X]

I agree with Brandon. The term love is thrown around so much now-a-days that is almost silly to think about loving your watch the same way you love a significant other.

I think there is a certain point where you CAN feel true love, but it is different for everyone.

[MadPoet]

It's different for everyone. I think it truly depends on how mature you are and what you're looking for in a relationship. Only you can decipher whether or not you are in love, no one else. So therefore only you can decide whether or not you are old enough, too.

[Union Of V]

Originally Posted by i_am_waves

I believe love can be experienced at any age, however, I think our own concept of true love changes and evolves as we grow older. True love might not mean the same thing when you're 50 as it did when when you were 15, but that doesn't mean it's not real to you at 15. Some teenagers take it a little too far when they claim to be in love with their boyfriend/girlfriend on the same day they start going out, but I definitely believe that teenagers have the capacity to fall in love.

I believe something similar, more that the concept of "true love" is ridiculous because there are different types of love, and none are "better" or "truer" than any other. People will love others differently, indeed two people can love each other differently and still have a perfectly healthy relationship.

To tie that back in with the OP, yes people can love quite young. It may not be the "type" of love you hold to be "true", but it's a form of love nonetheless.

[BDF]

From the day ur born. You might not understand it when you're that young, but it's there. It just depends on meeting the right person. For most that starts with your mum (I'm not suggesting incest). Babies cry when their mum leaves them no?

Love for ur family, friends even pets. It's about meeting the right people.

[Maloo]

It's different for everyone.

But it really bothers me when people are in their first serious relationship, and they're sooooo in love and it's going to last forever. Riiight. How often does that happen? Not often.

But to me, there's no specific age at all. I personally thought I was in love twice before the relationship I'm in now, and honestly, the other two weren't even close.

[her_beautiful_mistake]

Originally Posted by Myss

It's different for everyone.

But it really bothers me when people are in their first serious relationship, and they're sooooo in love and it's going to last forever. Riiight. How often does that happen? Not often.

But to me, there's no specific age at all. I personally thought I was in love twice before the relationship I'm in now, and honestly, the other two weren't even close.

But on the same wavelength you could come out of this relationship and into another one and realise that this one wasn't even close.

[Tara.]

Love, any age.

Romantic love, I think people experience different levels throughout their life. There's no such thing as "true" love.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

The issue is not of whether people can feel love at some age but what people define as "love". The word "love" is used in many situations, anything from "I love my new car" to "I love you", it has become so diluted, people toss it around without much care for thinking of how they define it. Amongst all this food-fighting-like chaos of love, there's a select group that actually do have intimate, strong emotional connections where they use "love" to denote their feelings, closest to the conservative definitions of it.

Imagining oneself as a third-person looking in at all this, you question yourself what love is based on what you see and the answer is it represents any amount of affection to any living or non-living set of molecules. You could take that in a different way, which is the way I look at it, as a word describing complex biochemical changes and interactions when one is with someone or something else in imagination or in-person.

Smell drives "love" in animals, including humans but with all these artificial perfumes, colognes and other scented products, "love" becomes confusing because we're trying to make ourselves more attractive to someone else. This removes intimate emotions because it's based on shallow emotions of people wanting to be liked or loved so when they receive that attention go for it. But once you use different smells, that connection can diminish. This is shown in rats whereas for humans this is being attempted doesn't make someone fall into someone else's arms however it does make someone like that person more than they usually would without that smell.

This idea of "true love" where person A looks at person B and they instantly form intimiate emotional connections on the spot, stay with each other forever and ever is fairy tales. Smell and sight are needed, not only one.

So the answer to at what age can one experience love is: define what love is and how it's expressed.

Originally Posted by Fauzia

In my opinion, love can be experienced at any age. But I would say a relationship for 2 years at least is *True* love.

That's my opinion.

And what reasoning do you have to support your opinion?

[Fictional]

Originally Posted by Myss

It's different for everyone.

But it really bothers me when people are in their first serious relationship, and they're sooooo in love and it's going to last forever. Riiight. How often does that happen? Not often.

But to me, there's no specific age at all. I personally thought I was in love twice before the relationship I'm in now, and honestly, the other two weren't even close.

I'm not arguing against what you're saying, but my 27 year old art teacher has been with her husband for sixteen years - he 'asked her out' when they were eleven and they've been together ever since ^^ So it does happen sometimes

[Thirteen]

Originally Posted by Myss

But to me, there's no specific age at all. I personally thought I was in love twice before the relationship I'm in now, and honestly, the other two weren't even close.

I agree.

Like, I had been in other relationships, where I thought I loved the person, and it truly seemed like I did.

However, when I met the fellow I'm with now, we instantly clicked. We started dating shortly after being friends for a bit, and with him, I don't feel like everything is based on speculation. We both feel like we're definitely going to move out together, get married, etc., though it may seem too early to others for us to say that. But, we both feel something we've never felt around anyone else before, so that speaks louder than anything else.

Its entirely possible to fall in love, but to truly experience it, well, you'll just know when it happens. Its like you're with your best friend as well as your lover. And well, its rather hard to put a specific age to that.

[Magic.]

I think love can be experienced at any age, and I don't think you can say ** many years / months etc into a relationship either.
My first boyfriend I didn't fall in love with for 3 months, the second was about 6 months and the most recent was about a two weeks. Two weeks felt like to short to me, so it was wierd telling him, but I did, you can't control when lvoe happens

[Guile]

I fell in love with a girl when I was 14, well more technically, I have been in love with her for two years, and I can't admit how I feel to her. Anyway, I guess I would say 14-15 is an appropriate age, as by that time people were beginning to get married, at least before the Industrial Revolution, I think the average age for marriage back then was between 15 and 18.

[MacGuffin]

There is no age at which you can fall in love. It all depends on the maturity, attraction, and commitment of the parties involved.

[ChaosControl]

Originally Posted by MondayComesAround

It's different for everyone. I think it truly depends on how mature you are and what you're looking for in a relationship. Only you can decipher whether or not you are in love, no one else. So therefore only you can decide whether or not you are old enough, too.

I agree with this, one hundred percent.

I can be cynical of other people's definitions of love, but I know that doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong. To me it would mean something different but I don't believe I can decide for another person whether they are in love. I think it's more to do with perception. Not to downplay it or anything, but it's an emotional concept, not a scientific one. Like Jessy says, it's depends on the person.

I had crushes and thought I was in love until the age of 17. I look back and feel that I was naive. I fell in love at 18 but I don't think it was anything to do with age, more that I had met the right person.

There are other types of love which I think we experience through all stages of our lives. I assume this question referred to romantic love, though.

[Lizzie]

Honestly, love as a teenager is completely different from what love is in my early twenties. I told two guys that I loved them in my teen years. And honestly, looking back, I wouldn’t make that same decision now. And while I truly believed it was love back then and it was entirely real for me, I have changed. People change and grow and what you look for in a partner in your teen years is not really what you look for in a partner when you get older. Time changes you, no matter what. And I know you guys are pointing out rare cases where people marry their high school sweethearts, but those are rare cases, they are not the majority. And to be completely honest, the people that I do know that have only ever been with their wives or husbands and no one else, aren’t all that happy. The “what ifs” about what else is out there can really get to them and make them depressed. So out of the few high school sweethearts, how many are truly happy?

I just think love means things at different ages. My teen love will never come back, because I look for different things in men now. I know more of what I want and have fine-tuned my expectations of what I personally want in a man. “Love” is not universal. It is experienced at different times of your life, felt in different varying degrees.