By Jenn SinrichSeptember 18, 2018

•  Whether you’ve been in a relationship for a while or are in beginning stages, you might be wondering if your partner really does love you. Here are some ways to tell.It’s easy to fall for what we see in the movies when it comes to being “madly in love.” However, in real life, the meaning or understanding of “madly in love” and answering the question “does my partner really love me?” is a bit more, shall we say, real—and, in fact, it very much varies based on the individual or couple, as well as the stage of relationship the couple is in. “For many couples, being madly in love is associated with passionate love—the hot desire, desperate longing, and passion—that couples feel at the beginning of their courtship, which usually decreases in intensity over time,” explains Terri Orbuch, Ph.D., professor at Oakland University in Michigan and author of 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great. Dr. Orbuch also points out that there is more than one type of love that occurs in relationships. One is full of passion, known as passionate love, and the other is a love filled with friendship that keeps two individuals truly happy over the long-term. “This second type, called ‘companionate love,’ is characterized by friendship, intimacy and commitment, and has been found to actually increase over the course of a relationship,” she says. “For other couples, being madly in love is associated with companionate love, along with reigniting romance and passion.”