"Have you ever been so consumed by a crush that you couldn't stop thinking about them? Or when you weren't around them, you felt sick to your stomach? There's a word for that, and it's called "limerence." The term was coined by the psychologist Dorothy Tennov in the 1970s to describe romantic obsession characterized by extreme emotional highs and lows. Neuroscientist Tom Bellamy explores the condition in Smitten: Romantic Obsession, the Neuroscience of Limerence and How to Make Love Last."
""Limerence is a state that many of us go into in the early stages of love: a profound romantic infatuation with another person," Bellamy says. "They give you an extraordinary natural high, so you feel a powerful desire to bond with that person." But if you're unable to actually bond with them, and the limerence goes on too long, "it can shift from happiness and euphoria into anxiety and craving," he says."
Limerence is a profound romantic infatuation characterized by obsessive thinking, extreme emotional highs and lows, and a desperate desire to bond with another person. The condition produces a natural high that intensifies craving and emotional volatility. When bonding does not occur or the state persists, limerence can transform from euphoria into anxiety and craving. Limerence can arise unexpectedly in established relationships and prompt investigation into brain mechanisms underlying attachment and obsession. Online communities of people with limerence provide experiential data. Identification of limerence and strategies to break its cycle can help overcome infatuation and foster stable, healthy romantic relationships.
Read at www.npr.org
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