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What You Need To Know About Love Addiction
How do you feel when you’re not in a relationship?
Have you ever felt the fear of being alone or rejected?
Do you lose interest in things you enjoy when you enter a relationship?
A growing body of research is starting to show that romantic love can be addictive. Love addicts are addicted to the rush of that initial romance, but never develop to what love truly is — presence, intimacy and support.
Love addicts mistake the intensity in a relationship for the intimacy of true love.
This results in relationships that have emotional highs, like intense passion, and emotional lows, like intense disappointment or heartbreak.
Love addiction is an inability to become vulnerable and bond in healthy ways with others. It is a way people cope to protect themselves from difficult emotions like shame, fear and depression.
Because love addicts may undervalue themselves, they typically end up assigning too much time and value to the person to whom they are addicted.
It’s important to recognize love addiction because, just like with other addictions, love addicts can experience withdrawal symptoms when their addiction is taken away.
