Is it addiction, or is it love? If you are wondering if you can be addicted to a person, the short answer is yes. Feelings or symptoms of obsession may convince you to believe that you are in love with an individual.
In short, yes. It's completely possible to be addicted to another human.
An addiction to a person involves obsessive thoughts about the relationship, feelings of hope, anticipation, waiting, confusion, and desperation. Addictive relationships are toxic and very powerful. Healthy relationships do not involve constant drama and continual feelings of longing.
An addictive relationship can be described as a relationship in which you obsessively give attention to your partner without giving enough of it to yourself. A person in such a relationship feels incomplete or unhappy without their partner.
The characteristics of addiction are craving of a person, severe mood swings if unable to feel secure in the relationship, inability to function normally, obsession of your partner and severe withdrawal symptoms if your lover leaves you.
Signs of love addiction
an overwhelming fear of being alone. obsessive thoughts regarding the relationship. excessive need for contact with the partner. negative emotions when away from the partner.
The Science Behind Love Addiction
Not only is there behavioral evidence that love can be addictive, but thanks to recent studies, we also have neurochemical and neuroimaging evidence to support the theory. Multiple feel-good chemicals are released when we are in love. These include dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Love and an unhealthy attachment may coexist or be hard to differentiate. Because with addiction, we tend to idealize and often happily self-sacrifice for our partner. When differences and serious problems are largely ignored, minimized, or rationalized, we're not really seeing or loving the whole person.
Falling in love can be a naturally addictive process. Feeling addicted to a partner who isn't healthy for you or doesn't want to be with you can seriously harm your wellbeing. Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques can help you let go of your ex and create the next phase of your life.
Emotional addiction is a state where there is a dependency, as the name indicates, on some emotions – or more specifically, on the chemicals produced by the brain when particular emotions are triggered, better referred to as “hit emotions.” This chemical reaction to certain emotions gives our brain a similar “reward” ...
The Avoidant Love Addict type is the partner Typical Love Addicts most commonly and repeatedly fall for in relationships. They become dependent on their partner's neediness and are only attracted to people who they can control.
For example, a partner lacking self-esteem may lean on their partner to give them that. Additionally, people may develop love addiction as a way to fill a void left over from childhood trauma, low self-worth, or a lack of self-love. Like other types of addictions, it can stem from abandonment fears.
It may seem counterintuitive that someone addicted to love would cheat on a partner, but it happens more than you might think. Love addiction and cheating too often go together.
Past Abandonment Wounds
Abandonment issues are sometimes an underlying cause of love addiction. Frequently, these issues stem from a childhood with physically or emotionally absent parents or caregivers. Past abandonment by one's spouse or long-term companion can also lead to love addiction.
They often have unhealthy fixations with their partners and seek to control them. Like with other forms of addiction, a person who is addicted to love may exhibit behavior and impulses that are out of their control.
Why do good people find themselves stuck in toxic relationships? Therapists often speak of something called “love addiction,” where a person craves the sense of fulfillment and validation that comes from being in a relationship, no matter how destructive.
The Dance/Cycle of Love Addiction
The love addict enters a relationship through a fantasy; Is responsive to the love Avoidant's seductiveness and in a haze of fantasy is manipulative in a shame position. The love addict has low self-esteem, no boundaries, and is out of touch with reality.
How to recognize and respond to the signs of addiction. Physical warning signs include small pupils; decreased respiratory rate; non-responsiveness; drowsy, loss or increase in appetite; weight loss or weight gain; Intense flu-like symptoms; and wearing long-sleeves or hiding arms.
Affairs are addictive and there is a reason why, when someone gets involved and makes those choices, it is hard to get out,” she explained. “It is because you get chemically addicted, there are dopamine hits that happen in your brain that makes them addicted to this person.”