Is “The Honeymoon Effect” just something we’re lucky to have with people?

I say no. The honeymoon effect is driven by Nature, and it’s based on something called the biological imperative. The “biological imperative” is an understanding that biologists have, which is that all organisms have a drive to survive. But in Nature, the drive to survive is not just for the individual but for the species, so we are driven to reproduce. If you don’t reproduce, there is no species survival. The more complex the organism, the less developed it is when it’s born. A baby is helpless. During the vulnerable period when the child cannot sustain itself; Nature asks—who is going to take care of it? Ah—the parents. Bonding holds animals together as it holds parents together. The chemistry of love at that level is not just of gratification, it’s also the pleasure and bonding to stay together long enough to parent the offspring. The chemistry of dopamine is pleasure. If I get pleasure from my partner, and oxytocin is released at the same time as the pleasure, oxytocin is the chemical that says “bond to the source of this pleasure.” Then the last piece of it is the serotonin. The serotonin associated with addiction, says: “wherever you’re getting that fix of pleasure, you want more of that.” When a person is in love, the person not only thinks about that individual, but also wants to be with them, they are also addicted to that individual in the sense that they want “more pleasure.”