These days there is a label and name for everything which quite frankly continues to baffle me. Putting people into boxes and labeling people with conditions I believe causes more problems than do good. Often it can keep people stuck and where they constantly need addiction counselors as they don’t believe they can change their fate. In the sex addiction treatment, I offer some people come because they are not in need of sex addiction treatment because they are having sex but because they have thoughts of sex.

Sometimes it can help people to identify their behavioural patterns and to feel not alone in going through it. Beyond that I take the label away list all the behaviours, thoughts and emotions someone has and we change them one by one. At least once a month someone comes to me to me wanting to break-free from fantasying about another person, obsessing which was labelled as a condition called Limerence in 1979 by Psychologist Dorothy Tennov.  Some term this as an addiction needing addiction treatment services. I regularly offer game addiction treatment, food addiction treatment and many other forms of addiction counseling Dubai and online and the symptoms can certainly become addictive.

Of course we all know and understand the term “love” “lust” and “infatuation” Tennoy described this under a new name a condition of limerence as –

  • Thinking obsessively about a particular person to the point where you can’t sleep, eat or work.
  • You are emotionally dependent on this particular person and feel the urge to be around them at all times. It is incredibly difficult to be away from them.
  • You put them on a pedestal, and they can do no wrong in your eyes – they are the epitome of perfection.
  • Whether feelings are reciprocated or not, feelings of limerence can continue to evolve and become more and more intense.

I come across this regularly in my work the past 12 years. Where people have what they experience as uncontrollable thoughts and feelings towards another person. Sometimes this can be how relationships start. Sometimes people can be married and start affairs in their head which may or may not become emotional or physical cheating, as they get obsessed with someone in their office or at the gym. It can start off as someone being kind and considerate towards them, whether it’s a neighbor, a colleague, someone from their gym or within their friendship circle. This person can then become the object of obsession.

So in this, I will cover

Signs to see if you could be caught up in an excessive infatuation / thought cycle = termed limerence

In the next article I will cover sex addiction treatment  and what you can do to stop obsessive thoughts about other people outside of your relationship, learn from any crushes you may have towards other people, how to break the cycle of wanting to impress someone and get attention. As well as how you can forget someone that has become your obsession.For those worried in a relationship with someone who is showing signs of being obsessed by someone else.

Spotting the Cycle of Addiction – Addiction Counseling Dubai and Online

Not many people know that our mind can easily get kind of stuck into thought loops until they experience it for themselves. So infatuation and repetitive thoughts about a person can easily make someone feel lost, confused and wonder if it is true love or meant to be.

One of my friends in high school had an amazing boyfriend everyone loved and she did too. Yet she was obsessed at also wanting to see his friend, who worked behind a bar on the other side of town. She would force us to go to the bar to see him and she barely said hello to him but she could not let it go and gave in to her impulses to go to this bar every week. Nothing ever happened more than a hello. It gave her a sense of excitement, someone to impress, dress up for and as her friends none of us could understand it.

This can happen for people with shop keepers, work colleagues, friends of friends etc and in can seem like an addiction and often they may question if they need addiction treatment services or addiction counseling.

So how do you know when you might need some addiction treatment services to break free from the unhelpful thought loop

Well it’s where your thoughts become intrusive.

  • They stop you from carrying out daily tasks because you can’t think about anything else but this particular person and everything you do is somehow linked to them. For example, songs you listen to will remind you of them.
  • You think so highly of them that you start fearing how you look in front of them, not wanting anything to taint the way this particular person will see you. You want them to see only the best side of you in the hopes that they reciprocate your “feelings” towards them.
  • Your feelings become so intense so quickly, rather than evolving gradually. You don’t need to be in the presence of this particular person in order for your feelings to evolve. For example, they might have said hello and asked you how you are, then the rest of the day you are thinking of how life would be being around them all the time etc.
  • You start to plan your day around this person, for example, finding out where they will be and planning to go to the same place so you can see them again or speak to them.
  • You look into their social media platforms and interactions with other people – reading into the conversations they are having with others, wanting to know what they are doing and who they are with etc.
  • It’s helping you to escape your day to day life, so you are becoming hooked on it like you are addicted to them or something and it seems out of your control.
  • You make up fantasy meetings and made up conversations in your head
  • You take it a step too far and know this is dangerous territory for all involved yet you still want more

As you can gather from the signs I’ve discussed, experiencing this infatuation and level of consuming thoughts (limerence) can be so consuming and have a real negative impact on your emotional well-being and also your relationship.

Do contact me nb@nicolabeer.com +971509454233 to discuss further or book a 20-minute introduction call here