Love is a funny thing.
It comes in so many hues and ways that it’s almost impossible to predict the type of love you’d experience until you actually experience it.
But as confusing, happy or even painful as it may seem, love is still something we all look forward to experience.
Throughout your life, you’ll find yourself in many circumstances of love, and almost all the time, you’d find yourself experiencing one of these ten types of love.
And eventually, you will experience all these ten types of love if you choose to!
The ten types of love
Without really getting into theories and styles of love that can just end up complicating your mind, let’s talk about real life and the experiences you’d feel in your own life.
Read these ten types of love and if there are some types that you haven’t experienced yet, don’t worry, it’s just around the corner.
And if you think a few types of love mentioned here aren’t really the kind of love your mama told you about, think again, because your brain sure does think it’s all truly an experience of love!
#1 Platonic love
Platonic love is the simplest of all types. There are no strings attached and no sexual intentions either. It’s pure, friendly and something we experience from a very young age when we still don’t know why we have the things we have inside our underwear.
The kind of relationships you share with siblings, close childhood friends and even a few grownup friends can fall right here. Do you remember the first time you missed a friend? That was probably your first platonic love moment.
#2 Limerence and crushes
Ever had a crush on someone? Of course you have! The first crush is a memorable experience, one that’s filled with confusing jolts in the stomach, sudden urges to throw up and a stupid sense of grinning satisfaction each time you see your crush. It’s a beautiful experience even if it did feel like your life depended on it at that time.
Limerence, on the other hand, is rather close to a crush but much more intense and “weird”. Have you ever liked someone madly, but didn’t ever want to express your love for them, like a school teacher or an actor, or even a crush? Sometimes, you may have an intense infatuation for someone, but yet, you wouldn’t want to spoil the happy thoughts by doing anything about it. Ever been there?
#3 Unrequited love
Unrequited love is a love filled with heartbreaks and one that almost all of us have experienced. It’s the dreaded one sided love, where you like someone and you know that person will never like you back. They may be in a relationship, or they may just use you. You find yourself falling more in love with each passing day, even though you know you’ll never get any happiness out of this type of love.
This is the type of love that gives love a bad name. But you know what, it also helps you understand the real value of reciprocal love.
#4 Obsessive love
Are you an obsessive lover or someone who’s addicted to their partner? Do you feel helpless and lonely without that special someone in your arm?
Are you sure you’re not bordering on being clingy? If you’ve ever been an obsessive lover, there’s a good chance you’ve sucked the life out of your partner and pissed them off until they eventually left you on the curb.
Obsessive love is usually experienced by the novices who experience love for the first time, probably after having to deal with the scary unrequited love. Obsessive lovers are scared, insecure, and obviously obsessive about the relationship.
Now you may have been one or may have dated someone like this. It’s a stage all of us experience when we’re afraid of losing someone we love. But if you or your partner has security issues, really, there’s no hope for a happy ending here.
#5 Selfish love
Selfish love is smart. And though it involves two people to create that relationship, selfish love also involves two people who are in love with one person.
Your partner loves you. You love you.
Selfish love is a narcissistic love where you don’t care about your partner or their happiness. You only care about yourself. If you ever find yourself getting into a relationship just for the heck of it without really falling in love with the other person, chances are, you’re a selfish lover.
Selfish lovers are clever, scheming foxes who only get into a relationship to see what they can get out of it.
Ever dated someone just to appear cooler or achieve something for personal gains? If you have, tick the selfish lover off the list. If you haven’t, wait and watch yourself use someone at some point in your life. Don’t worry, it’ll eventually happen.
#6 Awww love
Awww… that’s so cute. This type of love is the most spontaneous and yet, the one you’ll forget the soonest. It lasts for a few seconds, sometimes even less and some other times, a lot longer.
Do you love cats, dogs, goats… any animals at all? Or perhaps, a car or a tree? Sometimes, all of us feel an overwhelming sense of love for something or the other, and it doesn’t have to be a person. It’s love at first sight, and yet, it’s not something you’d want to sleep at night with (mostly). We’ve all experienced the heart melting awww when we look at vacation photos or a tiny kitten or a pup on youtube. Been there and done that, and yes, you’ve experienced another type of love.
#7 Same sex love
Ever felt an intense burst of happiness when you see a friend of the same sex? You’re both straight, you don’t cuddle and you don’t grope each other. But somehow you just love this person, and you either have a man crush or a girl crush on this friend of yours.
Same sex love is an emotion you’d feel for your friend or even a celebrity, but it’s got less to do with sexual attraction and more to do with awe, respect and admiration.
#8 Lusty love
Ever dated someone who got you wet with a hug? Ever had a crush on someone who makes you want to do things to yourself when you’re alone in bed? Yeah, you’ve experienced lusty love!
Lusty love is the type of love you experience when you lust for someone or get into a relationship with someone you’re extremely sexually attracted to. The first few weeks are all about sex and the positions, and both of you need just a few seconds of alone time to throw each other’s clothes on the floor. If a relationship of yours revolves more around the bed and less around trees and flowers, you’re in lusty love, my love.
#9 Romantic love
Butterflies, bliss and Louis Armstrong’s ‘what a wonderful’ is all you need to think of when you experience romantic love. It’s beautiful, sappy love at its best.
You feel the flutter of butterflies in your stomach, the world looks so much more beautiful and you can’t hold that grin back no matter what you do. You want to be with your sweetheart all the time, and even when you’re not together, you can’t help wanting to be together.
You’re happy. Your lover’s happy. The world’s happy for you. And you’re having the time of your life!
#10 Unconditional love
Blessed are the lovers who experience this special type of love for each other. It’s not easy and it’s definitely not something most people even want to try. But if you do ever take a leap of faith, you’d see what true love really feels like.
Do you love someone more than you love yourself? Do you care about your lover more than you care about anything else is the world? Chances are, you may be experiencing unconditional love. Unconditional love is the stuff fairy tales and romance novels are made of. If both of you care about each other and love each other selflessly, you’re in the middle of a special type of love that few ever experience, but spend all their lives looking for.
If you do want to ensure that you experience this tenth type of love, take a leap of faith and truly fall back in love with someone who loves you. Soon enough, with a bit of trust, communication and hope, you may just live through this grand experience that dreams are made of!
And there we have it, the ten types of love that you’d definitely experience in your life, as long as you’re willing to risk a chance and take that plunge into the waters of love. So how many types of love have you experienced so far?
