What are the signs of love addiction? In my last video, I gave you an overview of what love addiction is and what causes it. Today, we’re talking about the signs of love addiction.
Typical signs of love addiction include:
Outside of a Relationship, You:
- Feel like you’re in deep emotional pain and almost physically ill – and if you’re also alone, it’s so much worse
- Are on a mission! You wish for and are always looking a romantic relationship
- Can’t stand it! You struggle with deep, aching feelings of loneliness and despair
- May find yourself having meaningless sex as a way to feel not so alone
- Sometimes might feel like having sex or feeling deep love can actually help make the hard parts of your life a little easier – when these things are actively happening, you find it a lot easier to handle difficult emotions and experiences
- Sometimes skip important family, career, or social events to search for a romantic or sexual relationship
In a Relationship, You:
- Fall hard and fast for your partner – you may have even used the term “love at first sight,” and you might have said I love you quickly after getting together
- Sometimes confuse intense or exciting sexual experiences and the excitement of the infatuation that comes with a new romance with true love
- Really just want to be close to your partner, so you use sex and seduction to hook them and keep them interested
- If sex and seduction don’t work, you hate to admit it, but you’re not above manipulation (guilt/shame) to keep your partner around.
- Feel desperate to please and you worry that your partner isn’t happy with you
- Participate in activities that don’t interest you or go against your personal values in order to keep or please a partner
- Give up or push aside important interests, beliefs, or friendships to maximize time in the relationship or to please a romantic partner
- Find it really hard, and sometimes even impossible, to leave your relationship if it becomes abusive or in any way, even though you know better and you might have even made promises to yourself that you will eventually get out of there.
- Keep going back to toxic or abusive partners even though you swear you’ll never do it again.
- Really have a hard time trying to maintain a long-term romantic relationship because when the new, exciting part ends, you get bored or start to unintentionally sabotage the relationship
Your Partner:
- Is often someone you settled for because you felt it would be better than being alone
- Is a taker, while you’re usually happy to be a giver
- May be emotionally inaccessible and/or verbally or physically abusive
- May be obsessed with you, or alternatively, may not seem to care at all
- Demands a lot of your attention and requires you to do things to take care of them, but refuses to meet, or even try to meet, your emotional or physical needs
Angela Atkinson is a Certified Life Coach and the author of more than 20 books on narcissism, narcissistic abuse recovery and related topics. A recognized expert on narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder who has studied and written extensively on narcissistic relationships since 2006, Atkinson was inspired to begin her work as a result of having survived toxic relationships of her own.
Atkinson offers trauma-informed coaching and has certifications in life coaching, level 2 therapeutic model, CBT coaching, integrative wellness coaching, and NLP. She is a certified trauma support coach and certified family trauma professional. She also has a professional PTSD counseling certification. Her mission is to help those who have experienced the emotional and mental devastation that comes with narcissistic abuse in these incredibly toxic relationships to (re)discover their true selves, stop the gaslighting and manipulation and move forward into their genuine desires – into a life that is exactly what they choose for themselves.
Along with her solution-focused life coaching experience, Atkinson’s previous career in journalism and research helps her to offer both accurate and understandable information for survivors of abuse in a simple-to-understand way that helps to increase awareness in the narcissistic abuse recovery community. Atkinson founded QueenBeeing.com Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support, the SPANily Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support Groups and the Life Makeover Academy. In her life coaching practice, Atkinson’s clients enjoy her personalized approach that allows and encourages them to become the best possible versions of themselves and to succeed in doing what they love most. She offers individual and group coaching for victims and survivors of narcissistic abuse at NarcissisticAbuseRecovery.Online and NarcissismSupportCoach.com.
