Obsessive Love Disorder 101 – All You Need to Know About This Problem
The Netflix new series “You” has started to get many people to discuss obsessive love disorder and how destructive it is.
While this TV series can be a slight exaggeration of how this obsessive love disorder works, but in some extreme cases, it is true. You should read on more above this disorder and find out if your partner has got it or not.
Read on more above obsessive love disorder below and how to deal with it (spoiler alert: walk away)
What Is obsessive love disorder?
Well, to explain obsessive love disorder simply, it is about completely focusing on one individual to such an extent that it consumes you entirely.
Being in love with another person is a healthy feeling and leads to positive things in the future. However, being obsessed with someone or something is not healthy at all.
Of course, you must know that something similar to obsessive love disorder is very common at the start of a relationship and can be a precursor to another thing.
What causes obsessive love disorder?
For many people, when a relationship starts, there is a time when both the partners are overwhelmed with each other; they want to be interested in everything that they are doing, thinking, saying, wanting, and more.
As the relationship starts to grow and develop, this kind of overwhelming obsession starts to mature into friendship, respect, and commitment, and eventually starts to subside.
The interest in your partner is still there, but the level of intensity tends to decrease. This is a healthy part of a relationship, but when this doesn’t occur, it can lead to obsessive love disorder over time.
Signs of obsessive love disorder
As human beings, we generally feel a strong desire for loving and wanting to be loved, and to understand signs of obsessive love; one must understand this basic human nature.
So how can you tell whether it is just a harmless love affair, or has it crossed its line and driven into obsession?
Mentioned below are obsessive love disorder symptoms:
- Feeling a strong attraction
- Thinking obsessively about your partner to such an extent that you are unable to think or even focus on any other things
- The desire to spend all of your free time with the person you love
- Compromising your relationship with family and friends in order to pay attention to your partner
- Neglecting your daily activities such as your hobbies and your work so that you can focus on your partner
- Going out of your way just to make some kind of contact with a loved one
- Feeling a strong and intense territorial desire to protect your loved one
- Manipulating your partner such as holding things like money and food to keep them attached to you
- Possessive thoughts and behavior
- Depending on your love object for low self-esteem
- Being addicted to your loved one
- Asking your loved one for constant reassurance and affirmation
- Close monitoring of your partner’s activities and whereabouts
- Delusional and extreme jealousy
- Stalking your partner physically and on social media
If someone you know exhibits these symptoms, then you should help them immediately.
Why Is obsessive love disorder a problem?
What is it about this love disorder that makes it a problem that should be medically treated?
Well, the first thing in any relationship is that the people involved should have their own identity and be able to follow their friends and interests.
With one partner having obsessive love disorder, it can lead to difficulty in having separate identities and interests.
The reason behind this is because this disorder can lead to an overwhelming intensity of attachment and jealousy. The partner who is suffering from this problem can become jealous of everything the other person is doing. A person with obsessive love disorder will even find proof of unfaithfulness in their partner even if they have done nothing wrong.
A healthy relationship is based on mutual respect and trust, along with the ability of each person to have their own sense of independence. Having obsessive love disorder can make these things incredibly difficult.
Other symptoms also include being violent with your loved ones because of no control over their behavior and tracking them constantly.
If this disorder is not treated when the time is right, then it can escalate and lead them to being incredibly controlling. This leads to them attempting to control when the victim breathes, eats, and even when and where they go. They will do their best to keep them close at all times and control who they spend time with.
If you know anyone who has obsessive love disorder, then it is a smart idea to get it treated medically through a professional right away. You should not worry about this, but if it starts to escalate, leaving the relationship is a good idea.
Source:marriage.com
