Oxytocin: Hormone of Love… and of Mistrust?

Oxytocin is a neurohormone that is produced in the human brain and helps us form loving connections: mother-child bonds as well as the connections between romantic partners.  When we are with a person who stimulates our oxytocin-producing neurological system, we feel warmed, supported, in a word: loved.  However, making us feel loved doesn’t seem to be exactly the function of …

Alone or lonely

Alone or Lonely

Why is there such a difference between being alone or lonely? Sometimes there’s nothing more desirable than to take a break from a good hectic and demanding life in order to enjoy some peaceful solitude. And other times the idea of being alone taps into a terrible fear that perhaps we are unlovable. Several years ago I was sitting with a …