07/12/2025
is often based on , not .
What’s the difference?
As a psychotherapist, I often see people confusing love with limerence—or even mistaking abusive dynamics for limerence—because the intensity feels familiar or compelling. Many clients are drawn to the emotional highs and lows, interpreting the anxiety, obsessiveness, or trauma-bonding as evidence of “deep” connection. In reality, what they’re experiencing is not love but a pattern of emotional activation that can feel addictive. Helping people distinguish between genuine, reciprocal attachment and the dysregulation of limerence or abuse is a major part of the therapeutic work.