Like any other addiction, love addiction is not good for you. You stay in a relationship that you know isn’t good for you because of this addiction and can’t seem to walk away from the relationship. It’s evident you have love addiction when your relationship shows symptoms like early stages of joy then backlashes of huge pain.
An example. Your partner just got you to come back to him and he’s promising you that he wants to make the relationship work. You both even engage in a passionate sexual interaction and you begin to hope for a new beginning again. Then things go south again. Either he vanished, cheats or you find out that he’s double dating. It hurts you to stay with him but leaving seems like it’ll be unpleasant and totally impossible.He disappears. He won’t commit.
Like other destructive addictions, love addiction will ultimately lead to emotional damage in one way or another either shame, self hate, guilt, hopelessness, depression or self loathing.
All relationships involve drawbacks but if in your relationship, needs are being met and it is evolving over time not one that’s always following a hurtful routine, the relationship is non-addictive.
How To Recover From Love Addiction
At the root of it all, love addiction is simply an addiction so to treat it, we’re going to borrow a strategy that has helped millions of people get over one of the biggest addictions ever; Alcohol. Here are some ways you can break the addictive behavior.
• Avoid thoughts, people, places, and things that are associated with or lead to the addictive relationship. This includes avoiding:
• Online or offline places you are likely to see your guy/gal
• Any photo or memento that reminds you of him,
• Songs you associate with the relationship,
• Neighborhoods and hang-out joints that are associated with your ex.
• Avoid friends, whether IRL or on Facebook who are likely to fill your head with your guy/gal’s goings-on.
• If you have cravings or thoughts about the addictive guy/gal, IMMEDIATELY change the channel in your mind by shopping, playing a video game, listening to music, or exercising. Put your attention on these other activities.
• In order to overcome love addiction, commit to quitting him/her for only one day at a time. This involves going cold turkey and having no contact with the addictive person for only the next 24 hours! The reassuring thought is, I am not quitting for life. I will just not contact him for the next day!
• And then the next morning recommit to quitting all over again, but only for 24 hours.
It’s a long game to get over an addiction. Some people work on breaking addictions for the rest of their lives. I have faith that won’t be your case though. So, follow these steps and with patience, watch yourself get better and over your love addiction.
Love and light, Wonder.
To deal with breakups, READ Breakups: How To Deal With Them
