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Limerence is a state of involuntary obsession with another person.

Individuals in the throes of limerence struggle with troubling symptoms.

Breaking free from limerence begins with awareness.

Stories are powerful things! For millennia, human beings have been listening, learning, and sharing stories that help make sense of the world. Storytelling is foundational to our understanding of our world, ourselves, and our relationships with others.

As children, we are captivated by stories of distant lands, acts of bravery and courage, tales of escape from great danger, and more. Perhaps the most compelling stories are the love stories, from the fairy tales of love at first sight, with happily-ever-after endings, to the tragic tales of unrequited love that inform our thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors and set the stage for limerence.

Love versus limerence

While we may think we know a lot about love, we know little or nothing of limerence. While love is considered the most profound of human shared emotions, limerence, in a nutshell, is an individual state of involuntary obsession with another person. The term, coined by psychologist Dorothy Tennov in her 1979 book, Love and Limerence, is most often, though not exclusively, associated with romantic infatuation and obsession, as well as a desire for connection. This obsession often has little to do with reality, is mostly or entirely one-sided, and has little or no chance of developing into a healthy, functional relationship.

Though limerence is neither a disorder recognised in the Diagnostic and........

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