It is possible to be addicted to love, creating fixations on love interests that may manifest themselves in an unhealthy way.  Love addicts are susceptible to extreme highs with periods of intense passion, often followed by emotional lows that can be accompanied by heartbreak and disappointment.  They will often be plagued by emotional distress when the relationship ends or hits a difficult patch.  This personality is also more likely to enter unstable, even toxic, relationships that can leave them feeling emotionally spent and drained. 

Signs That You Have a Love Addiction

Those individuals struggling with a love addiction will often idolize their love interest, putting them on a pedestal.  Their behavior towards a partner is often clingy and over-dependent.  This can drive the love interest away, while leaving the love addict vulnerable to hurt and turmoil.  One of the biggest signs that you have a love addiction is the need to always be in love, seeking out these feelings rather than waiting for the right person.  When in a relationship, a love addict is often obsessive about their partner and may feel an overwhelming inability to be alone.  Fights and disagreements in the relationship can cause intense feelings that may even lead to anxiety and depression.  These are all signs of an unhealthy relationship that can instead drive your partner away.

What Causes a Person to Be Addicted to Love

There are many factors that can lead to a love addiction, including genetics, trauma, and your own childhood experience with relationships.  This addiction often stems from low self-esteem or other problems that manifest themselves as an intense need for love.  A love addiction may form to fill a void from unresolved childhood trauma and fears of abandonment.  Physical intimacy can release the feel-good chemical oxytocin in the brain.  This can then create feelings of intense attachment towards your partner, particularly in someone that is already vulnerable to codependency.

A love addiction can damage, or destroy, the relationship as the partner becomes too needy, obsessed and codependent even at an early stage.  This can leave the love addict feeling anxiety and depression any time there is a riff in the relationship.  The intense highs and lows that go along with a love addiction can put a strain on the relationship.  Over time this can lead to resentment, causing the relationship to dissolve.  When this happens, the love addict is often left crushed, with a feeling of helplessness that is more intense than a normal relationship dissolution.

Finding Help for a Love Addiction

If you think that you are suffering from love addiction, there is help.  Through therapy and addressing this behavior, you can begin to learn how to cultivate a normal relationship without the obsession and codependency that often go with a love addiction.  At Campbell Recovery Services, our team of professionals can help you address issues like past trauma and low-self esteem that will allow you to recover from your love addiction and go on to have healthy, two-sided relationships where both parties are equally committed.