Can You Really be Addicted to Love?

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Can You Really be Addicted to Love?

Can You Really Be Addicted to Love?

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Experts claim that desperate reactions to a break-up—like the urge to throw the nearest bunny into a saucepan—could be a clue that you’re suffering from yet another addiction.

I had never heard the phrase “Addicted to Love” uttered outside a Robert Palmer video or bad poetry until a few years ago, when a particularly poisonous breakup drove me temporarily insane. After endless hours of listening to me cry and obsess over what went wrong during my seven-month relationship, a few friends gently suggested that I seek professional help.

While Love Addiction didn’t make the cut in the latest D.S.M.-V, the bible of the psychology world,  there’s no denying that it’s the season’s hottest new affliction. Many critics blasted Dr. Drew when he put Tiger Woods’ former mistress Rachel Uchitel on Celebrity Rehab alongside a bevy of  meth and crack addicts, but Uchitel insisted that her “disease” was related to a “hole” that she was trying to fill in her heart.

The truth is, detoxing from love addiction can be dangerous: People kill in the name of “love” every day. Just ask former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, who was charged with kidnapping, after she drove cross-country wearing diapers and armed with pepper spray to confront her love rival.

At my first SLAA meeting:  “Have you lost count of the number of sexual partners you’ve had?” “Totally,” I responded. “But hasn’t everyone?”

Another question: “Do you find that you have a pattern of repeating bad relationships?” could also be responded to affirmatively by almost every person I know

The problem is, we’re all instructed from a very young age that our main goal in life is to find our perfect soul-mates. From Romeo and Juliet (underage bride, double suicide) to Wuthering Heights (animal torture, violent death) and Jane Eyre (insane hidden wife, arson), every great love story had two things in common:  A healthy dose of suffering and a body count.

“We’ve all had to deal with heartbreak and excruciating pain in our lives,” says Alexandra Katehakis, Founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Healthy Sex in West Los Angeles. “The true test of mental health is how you cope with these setbacks. Do you turn to family and friends, or do you start spinning out of control and stalking your ex? When something happens to blow up the fantasy, true love addicts go into physical withdrawal, and then into psychiatric meltdown.”

by, Catherine Townsend has written for New York magazine and The Independent in London. Her book,

Suzanne Rucker, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Certified in Love Addiction Therapy

www.SuzanneRucker.com

LifeCounselingSolutions@gmail.com

(407) 967-9313

 

Suzanne would like to help her clients find happiness in life.  Are you depressed or anxious wondering how you can get through the next day? Do you feel over-worked and under-appreciated?  Do you have a difficult maintaining your weight, managing your finances, coping with your own addiction or the addiction of someone else, or maybe you are having a hard time getting along with your spouse or a difficult teenager?  There is relief….The first step, which is the most difficult, is making the call to seek help and direction for a better life.

Suzanne Specializes In: Relationship Problems, Recovery & Strengthening, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Management, Sexual Addiction/Love Addiction & Co-Dependency (women & men), Addictions (drugs, alcohol, shopping, etc),Trauma ,Personal/Sports/and Corporate Coaching. Clinical Training: CSAT : Suzanne is trained in sexual addictions from the prestigious IITAP institute and Patrick Carnes, EMDR (eye movement and desensitization and reprocessing):

Suzanne offers this processing technique for relief from traumas, anxiety, depression, addictions, fears, phobias, and test anxiety.  EMDR can also enhance sports and speaking/professional performances, Prepare/Enrich: Suzanne can help you learn how to build stronger relationships through communication and conflict resolution skill building.  This program is ideal for premarital counseling, marriage preparation, marriage counseling, and marriage enrichment, Suzanne earned her MS in Counseling Psychology from Palm Beach Atlantic University.

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