What is Obsessive Love Disorder? Obsessive Love Disorder is a psychological condition that presents as an overwhelming, obsessive desire to protect and possess another person. Often an inability to accept rejection further contributes to an unhealthy love relationship.
Love is a feeling from the heart, and obsession can be termed as a crazy feeling. Though love and obsession are related in some aspects, the two can never be thought to be the same. Love is a feeling that is uncontrollable, and a feeling which one has for another person. Love always means caring, supportive and giving.
Obsessive love disorder (OLD) is not a formally recognized mental illness but is instead more so a relationship style characterized by unhealthy obsessions for a particular person. These fixations could be romantic, sexual, or controlling in nature, and may lead to inappropriate and abusive behaviors.
Can This Disorder Be Treated? Obsessive love disorder can be treated. You can take anti-anxiety medications like Valium and Xanax, antidepressants like Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers.
A person's ability to form healthy attachments with others begins early in childhood. People whose parents or caregivers were unstable or abusive may develop abnormal patterns of attachment. This may cause them to become obsessive, controlling, or fearful in their relationships.
Risk factors for developing Obsessive Love Disorder include:
Childhood neglect can hinder a person's ability to form healthy attachments later in life. Neglect can create anxiousness, insecurity, or possessiveness surrounding relationships, which can worsen love disorder symptoms.
Sadly, an obsession can last for years without proper healing or distance. As previously explained, if the brain has a steady source of those love chemicals, it will keep coming back for more just like with any drug.
Key Pointers. Love is a strong sense of fondness, whereas obsession is overflowing with thoughts only about the person. An obsessive person will rush you into things in a relationship, expect constant validation and are over-possessive.
Love is a healthy emotion that enables the two people involved in the relationship to grow in life and appreciate each other's differences with equal ardor. On the contrary, obsession is an unhealthy sentiment where the obsessive partner does not allow the other person to grow and pursue their interests.
If you suspect you're someone with BPD's favorite person, they may exhibit the following signs toward you: Consistent need for reassurance. Intense declarations of their love or appreciation for you. Reaching out more frequently when you don't respond.
Romantic rejection stimulates parts of the brain associated with motivation, reward, addiction, and cravings. Being romantically rejected can be a familiar feeling that mirrors one's childhood, leading that person to seek out more of the same.
Loving someone means giving them space. Being all-consumed by a relationship in its early stages could also be a sign of obsession. Being completely engrossed in someone isn't necessarily a red flag that your partner is abusive, but it isn't a good sign either.
Limerence is considered as a cognitive and emotional state of being emotionally attached to or even obsessed with another person, and is typically experienced involuntarily and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one's feelings—a near-obsessive form of romantic love.
The third phase is the stalker or obsessive phase, when the obsessed person may follow the target, continuously call, stop by the office unannounced, drive by and even monitor the targeted one. Obsessive questions are usually a characteristic of this phase. Finally, the obsessed person enters the destructive phase.
This comes as no surprise because the brain is essentially designed to fall in love quickly. During the early stages of a relationship, you're high on dopamine and oxytocin, and your body encourages you to bond quickly. It helps to make it easy to spend every waking moment you can with your new obsession.
The following are some typical signs of obsession: Thinking about the other person most of the time. Stalking the other person online or following them around. Forging relationships with everyone close to them, such as friends and family, to have a part in all of their interpersonal interactions.
We become obsessed with certain people because we have fundamental neural systems that drive us into a state of infatuation, and these can be overactivated at times in our lives when we are vulnerable to the romantic potential of a person who matches our subconscious template of a desirable mate.
According to Medicinenet, obsessive love disorder is when a person feels an insatiable and overwhelming need to protect the person they are with as though they're an object. They can often become controlling, to the point of trying to control everything their partner does.
The answer is Dopamine. A drug like chemical that pulsates the body in search of pleasure. The dopamine-driven reward loop triggers a rush of euphoric drug-like highs when chasing a crush and the desire to experience them repeatedly.
People with BPD feel firmly attached to their favorite person and may depend on them for comfort, reassurance, and guidance. In many cases, someone with BPD may rely entirely on their favorite person. As a result, they may idealize them and expect them to always be available.