Choose Private Confidential Counselling For Love Addiction In Sydney & Online
WHAT IS LOVE ADDICTION
‘Love addiction is characterised by inability to control pervasive love yearnings for a romantic partner, and is marked by intensity, euphoria, withdrawal, and dependency. Love addicts may emotionally depend on their romantic partner(s) to a point of tolerating unrequited love or abuse.’
COMMON SYMPTOMS OF UNTREATED LOVE ADDICTION
- Love addicts may confuse intense romance with love.
- Love addicts may confuse intense sexual experiences with love.
- Love addicts may feel unworthy when single.
- Love addicts fall in love easily, and may rapidly cycle in and out of relationships.
- Love addicts may please their partner(s) to the point of disowning their own needs.
- Love addicts may experience extreme anger outbursts upon (real or perceived) rejection.
- Love addicts may idolise their partner(s) and believe that love conquers everything.
FALLING IN LOVE – THE HEALTHY LIMERENCE EXPERIENCE
The natural state of falling in love, also called honeymoon or scientifically limerence, is a powerful and temporary biological state of elevated levels of neurotransmitters and hormones enabling extreme attraction between two novel partners. Emotionally healthy couples are able to maintain their boundaries and individuality throughout the entire course of their limerence and later relationship.
WHAT IS LOVE ADDICTION IN CONTRAST
Love addiction, in contrast, is a problematic form of attachment. Love addicts tend to form obsessional attachment bonds of adoration, passion, romance, and blind love without boundaries and may lose sight of their own needs and their individuality. Some love addicts depend on their partner(s) emotionally to a point of tolerating relationship abuse. Women and men can addict to love, however, love addiction presents as a predominantly female problem. Check your love addiction symptoms with our FREE love addiction self screening test.
BEHAVIOURS OF LOVE ADDICTION
Love addiction may result from childhood neglect and love deprivation, and can develop into a ‘love hunger’ of seeking unconditionally close and intense romantic love affairs and relationships without healthy boundaries.
Love addiction presents in cycles of highs and withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms occur upon real or perceived loss of love. Symptoms can be mild to severe and may present as feelings of rejection and intense fear of abandonment, also clinginess, loss of identity, extreme anger, intense love cravings, grief, sadness, depression, and in the extreme homicidal or suicidal thoughts or acts.
VULNERABILITIES AND DANGERS OF LOVE ADDICTION
As love addicts are exposed to considerable risks of filling an almost bottomless need for love, their ability to accurately assess their partner(s) motivation for relationship can be compromised. Love addicts may blur their own romantic expectations with their partner(s) reality, and may react excessively to emotional triggers of perceived or actual rejection.
Once feeling rejected, a love addict’s suffering may turn into sudden rage outbursts of dismissing, blaming, devaluing, and punishing their partner, or dismissing all love as ‘unsafe’, only to hastily filling their love gap by pursuing new love, and thus continuing the cycle of love addiction.
Love addicts are not primarily concerned with sex, but tend to give sex to please their partner(s) ever sexual demands as means to securing love. Love addicts are at risk of lacking good judgement of how much sex they should give, and may become victims of sexual exploitation.
DEVELOPMENT OF LOVE ADDICTION
Love addiction precursors may develop in early childhood when safe attachment bonds of love and nurture, descending from parent or primary caregiver to child, are dysfunctional. Secure love attachment in early life is essential for a healthy psycho-emotional development. Love addiction in adults may be understood as substitution for deprived and unfulfilled love needs in childhood, thus leading to unrealistic love expectations in later life.
LOVE & RELATIONSHIP ADDICTION TREATMENT
If you find yourself repeating a cycle of consuming love and painful rejection, you may be a love addict. Confidential private love addiction treatment, offered by Sex Addiction Australia in Sydney and Online, can help you breaking the cycle of love addiction, and creating healthy relationships.
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For obligation free information regarding our love addiction counselling, or booking a confidential consultation, please use our Book Or Enquire Online option, or call Heide during office hours (+61) 02 9380 4486 or email info@sexaddictionaustralia.com.au