Love Addiction: It’s Not About Love—It’s About Survival

Love addiction isn’t really about love. Not the steady, nurturing, secure kind. It’s about the craving—for attention, validation, and connection. Cravings that often stem from old, unhealed wounds.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in painful relationship patterns—feeling euphoric one moment and shattered the next—this might speak to you.

Let’s walk through the cycle. You might recognize yourself in it.

1. It begins with obsession.

You meet someone, and it’s electric.

You feel seen. Chosen. Finally, someone gets you.

But it quickly becomes more than attraction. You don’t just like them—you cling to them. They become your sun, and everything else fades. You think, This must be love. This must be it.

But what you’re really feeling is the high of being wanted. Desired. Valued. And if you grew up without that steady kind of love, this feeling becomes intoxicating.

2. Then comes dependency.

Slowly, your emotional state starts to depend on them.

A delayed reply triggers anxiety.

A quiet day feels like rejection.

You start reshaping yourself to keep them close—suppressing your needs, ignoring red flags, tolerating things you once swore you never would.

Why? Because the thought of them leaving feels unbearable.

If they go… who am I then?

3. The relationship begins to crumble.

That pedestal you put them on? It starts to crack.

Maybe they pull away. Maybe they become distant, inconsistent, or even hurtful.

But instead of stepping back, you give more.

Love harder. Shrink smaller.

And it hurts—deeply.

You wonder, Why am I never enough? Why does this keep happening?

4. Then comes the withdrawal.

Whether they leave or the relationship emotionally dies, you crash.

It’s not just heartbreak—it’s like losing oxygen.

You scroll through old messages, reread conversations, beg the universe for one more chance.

It feels like grief. Like withdrawal from a drug.

And you question everything: Was it even real? Or was I just chasing a feeling?

5. And then… the cycle repeats.

Maybe you go back to them.

Maybe you jump into something new, chasing that first rush.

Hoping someone else can fill the hollow inside you.

And the pattern continues—until one day, you stop running from yourself.

But here’s what I need you to know:

You are not broken.

You’ve simply learned to survive by reaching outward for love—because maybe, when you were younger, love felt scarce or conditional.

That craving inside you?

It’s not weakness.

It’s a message from the parts of you that still need to be held.

Your inner child is saying, Please don’t leave me behind again.

Healing begins here.

When you start turning inward.

When you give yourself the love you’ve spent years chasing.

When you realize that real love shouldn’t feel like a battlefield.

You deserve a love that feels like peace.

And yes—healing is possible.

You are not alone in this.