From the "love addict site"...
Actually, I told my shrink that my next addiction was gonna be a S&L one...joking that I was gonna go to meetings and hang out in the parking lot looking for the relapsers...at least that way I'd have some fun and have some stories to tell in the nursing home someday...
hehehe
actually many of the criteria "fit", how pathetic is that?
I probably need psycho therapy...years and years of it...I just can't afford to take the time off and pay for it and live on disabiliy for heaven's sakes...
I mean aren't we all a little crazy...
isn't love a little like mental illness...
don't all relationships have some stalker tendancies in the beginning...?!?
"Lack of nurturing and attention when young
*Feeling isolated, detached from parents and family
*Compartmentalization of relationships from other areas of life
*Outer facade of "having it all together" to hide internal disintegration
*Mistake intensity for intimacy (drama driven relationships)
*Hidden Pain
*Seek to avoid rejection and abandonment at any cost
*Afraid to trust anyone in a relationship
*Inner rage over lack of nurturing, early abandonment
*Depressed
*Highly manipulative and controlling of others
*Perceive attraction, attachment, and sex as basic human needs, on a par with food and water
*Sense of worthlessness without a relationship or partner
*Feelings that a relationship makes one whole, or more of a man or woman
*Escalating tolerance for high-risk behavior
*Intense need to control self, others, circumstances
*Presence of other addictive or compulsive problems
*Insatiable appetite in area of difficulty (sex, love or attachment / need.)
*Using others, sex & relationships to alter mood or relieve emotional pain
*Continual questioning of values and lifestyle
*Driven, desperate, frantic personality
*Confusion of sexual attraction with love ("Love" at first sight.)
*Tendency to trade sexual activity for "love" or attachment
*Existence of a secret "double life"
*Refusal to acknowledge existence of problem
*Defining out-of-control behavior as normal
*Defining "wants" as "needs"
*Tendency to leave one relationship for another. (Inability to be without a relationship.)
*Attempts to replace lost relationships with a new one immediately
Many of these symptoms are also elements of codependency and intimacy dysfunctions resulting from childhood abandonment, emotional and / or sexual abuse. For this reason treatment and therapy for Love Addiction often includes trauma recovery work. "