Why do people think that having a crush means you're automatically in love with that person?

Many a child has been born in this manner. We’d probably have half our current population if crushes were not so easily conflated as love.

It is called wishful wistful thinking.

Usually one party of the crush mistakes it for “love” instead of infatuation. You are quite wise, @ducky_dnl

The feelings are so powerful. You think about your crush 24/7. You are completely obsessed. Isn’t it obvious why people think it’s love? I mean, that’s what love is about when you’re young. You can’t live without this person.

It’s nearly impossible to think about the long term and about the truth of the crush’s personality when you are blinded by the light emanating from them. It’s the light of an angel. Who can resist? Who can question it?

Only the most cynical people, that’s who. ;-)

Love is more than a crush, and any sensible person knows this. I’m not sure why anyone would jump to such a conclusion; in fact, I’ve never heard of anyone doing this. I for one would never assume someone is in love just because they show interest. Maybe they just want to make a bigger deal out of something, because that’s what they need to entertain themselves. Who knows.

because you are always drooling and day-dreaming about your crush…

That’s what happens when a word (Love, in this case) is poorly defined. People have different ideas of what love is (or isn’t).

Isn’t it also about the chemical oxytocin and what it does to your brain and thinking when it’‘s released? It’s like you’re drugged… but you just have to know better.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. It is stupid to believe you can have love at 1st sight. It really is lust at 1st sight”. That lust produces that roller coaster syndrome, that new exciting feeling. You never want that feeling to end. With that, it is like a drug. Because that feeling is connected to this other person you want that other person around as much as possible. It is artificial because you have not lived in the same space under real conditions but dated under Disneyland conditions. When you have to manage the dry cleaning, do the toilet, weed and seed the yard do things other than clubbing and the bedroom the luster fades, those with out strong roots whiter and die like weeds with no water.