Love addiction and love avoidance are two patterns of behavior related to how some of us play out our attachment wounds.
Falling in love is one of the best feelings in the world. Love addicts fall hard and become emotionally dependent on a romantic partner, experiencing intense feelings of attachment, infatuation, compulsivness and obsession with the relationship.
We may feel a constant need for validation and reassurance from our partner, and have difficulty functioning without the relationship.
This can lead to a pattern of unhealthy relationships and a fear of being alone or abandoned.
On the other hand, love avoidants tend to avoid close relationships or intimacy. This may be due to past experiences of being enmeshed or relied apon in a disfunctional way with a primary caregiver.
For the love avoidant there is an unconscious or conscious fear of being engulfed, with an underlying fear of abandonment. Avoidants may have difficulty expressing their feelings or may avoid emotional intimacy.
This often leads to a pattern of distancing strategies from potential partners or avoiding close relationships all together, leading to sexual or emotional anorexia.
Love avoidants can stay in relationships but may be acting out and avoiding intimacy through other chemical or process addictions such as sex addiction, work addiction or gambling.
With the right therapy and support, recovery from love addiction and avoidance is possible.
Tori has extensive experience working in the area of sex and love addiction, understanding the complexity of this intimacy related disorder.
Sessions are available via zoom and face to face on Sydney's Northern Beaches and Crows Nest.
