Psychologists pinpoint the dividing line between problematic romance and severe love addiction

A recent study published in Sexual Health & Compulsivity has identified a key distinction between individuals who exhibit concerning romance tendencies and those who suffer from severe love addiction. Researchers from Sapienza University of Rome found that people with clinical levels of love addiction experience heightened relationship anxiety compared to those simply at risk.

The study revealed that both at-risk individuals and those with clinical diagnoses share similar struggles regulating their emotions, suggesting that love addiction operates on a continuum where extreme attachment anxiety triggers the shift into a clinical condition.

Love addiction is characterized by obsessive, codependent involvement in a romantic relationship. For those affected, a relationship becomes the central focus of their life, leading them to seek constant approval, reassurance, and closeness from their partner, often to the detriment of their friendships, career, and personal passions.

This fixation persists even when it causes significant emotional distress or negative repercussions in other aspects of life. Historically, the classification of love addiction has been a point of contention among researchers, with some viewing it as a behavioral addiction akin to gambling, while others see it as an attachment disorder driven by an excessive fear of abandonment.

The lack of standardized diagnostic criteria for love addiction in psychiatric manuals has posed challenges for mental health professionals in identifying and treating the condition. To address this gap, researchers adopted a bottom-up approach, examining psychological dimensions like emotional, personality, and relational traits as they naturally manifest in individuals rather than forcing participants into rigid diagnostic categories.

Patrizia Velotti, the study's lead author and a professor of clinical psychology at Sapienza University of Rome, noted the growing clinical and public interest in love addiction. However, she emphasized the need to move beyond the assumption that it is merely a behavioral addiction. Velotti and her team aimed to explore the psychological processes underlying love addiction, including emotion regulation, personality functioning, and relational processes.

Previous research indicated that individuals at risk for love addiction struggle more with emotional control and forming secure relationships than healthy individuals. A 2024 study highlighted that such individuals experience difficulties in controlling their emotions and building trustworthy connections compared to those without the condition.

Additionally, a 2026 study suggested that emotional dependence and love addiction have distinct psychological profiles. A 2025 meta-analysis found that people dealing with love addiction consistently display high levels of insecure, anxious attachment to their romantic partners. A 2023 study also showed that an overwhelming fear of rejection and abandonment strongly predicts love addiction, particularly when combined with low self-worth.

These earlier studies established a link between love addiction, emotional distress, and insecure relationship patterns, prompting researchers to investigate whether the psychological traits associated with the condition worsen as people progress from mild risk to severe clinical dependency.

To test these hypotheses, the researchers conducted a study involving 152 adults in Italy, averaging around 33 years old. The participants were divided into three groups based on their relationship struggles. The first group comprised 70 individuals without any risk of love addiction. The second group included 53 participants identified as being at risk for love addiction through high scores on a self-report questionnaire evaluating addiction-like behaviors, such as experiencing withdrawal symptoms when separated from a partner or allowing the relationship to interfere with daily life.

The third group consisted of 29 individuals actively receiving clinical treatment for love addiction, identified by mental health professionals.

All participants completed a series of surveys assessing various psychological dimensions. To measure emotional regulation, researchers used a scale evaluating how well individuals could accept negative emotions, control impulses, and stay aware of their feelings during distress. Personality functioning was gauged through questions about participants' sense of identity, self-direction, empathy, and capacity for intimacy.

Strong self-direction involves the ability to set and pursue meaningful goals, while intimacy relates to maintaining deep, respectful connections with others. Relational variables were assessed by measuring participants' attachment anxiety and their ability to recognize and interpret emotions within the context of an intimate relationship.

Researchers controlled for age and gender to ensure demographic factors did not influence the results. Their findings showed that both at-risk and clinical groups reported significantly more difficulty managing their emotions compared to the non-risk group. These individuals struggled with regulating negative emotional states, suggesting that problematic romantic involvement may function as a maladaptive coping mechanism to alleviate emotional distress.

Velotti emphasized that the relationship itself might serve as both a means of emotional regulation and a compulsive behavior, highlighting the need to understand love addiction as both a psychological and behavioral issue.