What causes love addiction? For most, this stems from lacking important needs during childhood. These can include physical or emotional needs, causing a lack of nurture, feeling of belongingness, and safety. Failure to have these important needs met in childhood affects a person’s self-esteem, often causing them to look to others for validation along with a fear of abandonment and real intimacy. Because of the nature of love addiction, it can affect each person differently. Some fall into a series of quick relationships and one-night-stands, while others hold onto toxic and damaging relationships.
Am I a Love Addict?
Do you fall into a chaotic, desperate need for emotional connection despite fear of being alone or rejected? Do these feelings cause you to feel that you need that one special someone in order to be truly happy and whole, often causing you to either switch partners frequently or hold onto relationships that are unhealthy? If so, then you might have love addiction. The sad thing is, people with love addiction often miss out on great relationships because of these strong emotions and desires.
You might suffer from love addiction if:
- You become obsessive over finding love or over an individual.
- You have difficulty thinking about anything but love or sexual fantasies.
- You equate love and relationships with your self-worth.
- Being in a relationship dominates your time over friends and family.
- Your relationships often lack real intimacy and you are often jealous.
- You become codependent easily.
- You or your partner (or both) use love as a form of control.
- You confuse sexually intense experiences with love.
