Codependent Love Addicts
Typical love addicts are frequently codependent, meaning they desperately try to hold on to their partners using codependent behavior (e.g., enabling, rescuing, caretaking, passive-aggressive attempts to control and/or tolerating abuse or neglect in the hopes their love will be reciprocated).The Obsessed Love Addict
The term “obsessed love addict” refers to those love addicts who become attached to individuals who are unavailable, distant, aloof, abusive, controlling, selfish, and/or who are addicted to something outside the relationship (e.g., drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, etc.).Dependent Personality Disorder
Many of the above characterized love addicts are thought to suffer from dependent personality disorder (DPD), one of the most frequently diagnosed personality disorders. Individuals with DPD tend to be clinging, needy, and passive, and display a fear of separation. Some of the commonly occurring traits of DPD are:- Intense fears of separation, rejection and perceived abandonment
- A sense of devastation and poor ability to function at the end of a relationship (though they often move quickly into a new relationship)
- Inability to make even everyday decisions without the advice or opinions of others
- High sensitivity to criticism
- Lack of self-confidence and an abiding pessimism in their abilities to care for themselves
- Conflict-avoidance due to an intense fear of the loss of support or approval
- Tendency toward naivety and fantasy
- Intolerance to being alone
- Willingness to tolerate mistreatment
