Love Addiction: Definition, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment

Substance use disorder is a primary, chronic, and progressive disease that sometimes can be fatal. No matter your background or expertise, your loved one will likely need outside help. Even the term feels lonely and sad, perhaps like you’re giving up on your loved https://ecosoberhouse.com/ one in a way. If you decide to call an emergency number like 911, ask the operator to send someone trained in mental health, like Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) officers. Witnessing your loved one using substances can be very upsetting and stressful.

Why we should try to understand the underlying demons of the addict.

• Even if you disagree with what they are doing or saying, it’s important to withhold judgment.
• This leads to an unbalanced, unhealthy, and enmeshed relationship.
• You can also check out Co-Dependents Anonymous if you want to learn more about codependency and codependent relationships.

If you experience symptoms of love addiction, you can try the following self-soothing and coping strategies. These activities increase feel-good hormones in healthy ways, giving you what you may be searching for from your love addiction. Although the causes may vary, a commonality of love addiction may be a false notion that your romantic partner will save you. Dye explains that this may cause partners to pull away because it may feel overwhelming or exhausting. Lara Dye, PhD, a clinical psychologist and addiction specialist in Austin, Texas, believes that love addiction belongs in the DSM-5. “Most of what’s included in the DSM anyways is largely trauma reactions and attachment problems, and the ways people express that pain,” she says.

Causes and Risk Factors: Unraveling the Roots of Love Addiction

When the passion is still there, we’re lucky to have both love and lust. Many people could find themselves in a relationship that induces feelings of love addiction. But if the two conditions that Cohen listed above are not occurring, their unhealthy behaviors and problematic feelings may not be chronic. Substance use disorders affect biological functioning, dominating the brain’s reward system, affecting emotional regulation, motivation, impulse control, and pleasure-seeking behaviors. The brain and body become dependent on an outside substance to create feelings of happiness and well-being—and, at advanced stages of the disease, to simply maintain the ability to function. Addiction specialists believe that addiction can occur with anything and that a person can subsequently suffer from an unhealthy addiction to anything or anyone.

Set Boundaries

Once I opened up about the issue, love, support, and some judgment came flooding in. Remain consistent in your message so your loved one doesn’t misunderstand what you want or expect of them. An important part of communicating is listening to what the other person has to say. When someone with addiction confides in you, listen without interrupting or criticizing. By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism.

Do Know When to Take a Step Back

Take our free, 5-minute substance abuse self-assessment below if you think you or someone you love might be struggling with substance abuse. The evaluation consists of 11 yes or no questions that are intended to be used as an informational tool to assess the severity and probability of a substance use disorder. The test is free, confidential, and no personal information is needed to receive the result.

Instead, learn to accept the present and the parts of your life that might be out of control due to loving someone with an addiction. You might feel the need to do favors for people with addiction to maintain a false sense of peace. However, the longer the enabling continues, the worse the situation can become — for you and the person struggling. Sometimes, no matter what you loving an addict do to support your partner, their substance use has progressed to the point where they are unable to make rational decisions to cease their substance use. It may be necessary to seek legal assistance to save your loved one’s life. Partners can look into civil commitment laws (e.g. sectioning) within their state, to explore involuntarily sending your partner to treatment.

• Some of these methods may seem harsh, but they come from a loving approach with the ultimate goal to help the person overcome their addiction and to help all parties heal.
• You may find yourself being asked for money often, and feeling guilty if you say no.
• When you can be as truthful as possible with yourself about your own enabling behaviors, you can begin to make different choices.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Conditions

It’s a persistent pattern of behavior that can manifest in various ways, including intimacy addiction and romance addiction. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they can have slightly different nuances. If you’re close with someone who has alcohol use disorder (AUD), it can be difficult to know what to do to minimize conflict and stress, support your loved one, and tend to your own needs at the same time. Like most people, you probably feel the need to help your loved one with addiction.

Love Addiction: What Are the Stages of Codependency?

• Psychotherapy can be an effective method for individuals with problematic behaviors around love to learn how to better manage their trauma responses, especially in the presence of any triggers.
• Love is one of the most central components of the human experience.
• Addiction not only involves the individual suffering from the substance use disorder, but their partner, their family, and their friends as well.