What Is Limerence? Signs, Causes and How to Let Go
Your phone lights up.
For a fraction of a second, your whole body reacts. Your chest tightens. Your attention leaves whatever you were doing. Perhaps it is a message from them. Perhaps they have finally replied. Perhaps they have been thinking about you too.
It is only a delivery notification.
The disappointment feels strangely physical.
Five minutes later, you are checking whether they have viewed your story. You replay the last conversation you had. You examine their choice of words. You wonder whether the smile they gave you meant something more. Part of you knows that you are building an enormous emotional world from very little evidence, but another part refuses to let go.
This experience may be limerence.
Limerence is an intense and often involuntary preoccupation with another person. It can involve intrusive thoughts, idealisation, emotional dependency and an overwhelming desire for the other person to return your feelings. The person at the centre of the fixation is sometimes called the limerent object, although that clinical sounding phrase can feel uncomfortable when discussing a real human being.
The term was introduced by psychologist Dorothy Tennov following hundreds of interviews about romantic love. Researchers now generally describe limerence as an overwhelming attachment in which the hope of reciprocation becomes emotionally consuming. It is not currently recognised as a formal psychiatric diagnosis, but the distress and disruption experienced by some people can be very real.
What Does Limerence Mean?
The simplest limerence definition is an intense romantic fixation fuelled by uncertainty.
You do not merely like the person. Your mind begins to organise itself around them.
A pleasant interaction can create hours of euphoria. A delayed reply can trigger anxiety, embarrassment or despair. A vague compliment may be remembered for months. Silence can feel like rejection, but even rejection may not bring emotional closure if there remains the smallest possibility that circumstances could change.
This is one reason limerence can feel different from an ordinary crush. A crush may be exciting and distracting, but it usually remains one part of your life. Limerence can begin to dominate your concentration, confidence, routines and emotional wellbeing.
Recent research describes two especially important aspects of limerence. The first is an intense need for attachment and reciprocation. The second is neglect of yourself, your responsibilities or your existing relationships because so much mental energy is directed towards the other person.
A Personal Story About Realising It Was Limerence
The following account is a composite story based on experiences commonly described by people dealing with limerence. The name and identifying details are fictional.
Sarah met someone through work. They spoke only occasionally, but every conversation felt unusually significant to her.
He remembered the name of a film she had mentioned. He laughed at one of her jokes. Once, after a difficult meeting, he asked whether she was all right.
These were kind gestures. Sarah turned them into evidence.
She began arriving at work earlier because she knew when he usually made coffee. She reread old messages and searched for hidden warmth in ordinary sentences. At home, she imagined conversations in which he admitted that he had always felt the same connection.
The imagined relationship became more emotionally vivid than the actual one.
When he was friendly, Sarah felt confident and attractive. When he appeared distracted, she spent the evening wondering what she had done wrong. Her mood was being controlled by interactions that he probably considered completely ordinary.
The turning point came when Sarah realised that she knew very little about him. She knew the version of him that existed in brief conversations, carefully selected social media posts and her imagination. She was emotionally attached to a possibility.
Recognising that did not immediately end the feelings. It did, however, give her somewhere to begin.
Common Signs of Limerence
Limerence can look different from one person to another. It is not simply a matter of thinking about someone frequently. The important questions are how intrusive the thoughts feel, how strongly your mood depends on the person, and whether the fixation is interfering with your life.
1. You cannot stop thinking about the person
Thoughts about them appear while you are working, studying, exercising, driving or trying to sleep. You may attempt to concentrate, only to find yourself replaying an interaction again.
The thoughts can feel automatic rather than chosen.
2. You constantly search for signs that they like you
You analyse messages, facial expressions, pauses, emojis, compliments and changes in tone.
A small sign of warmth may feel like proof that your feelings are reciprocated. An equally small sign of distance may feel devastating.
3. Your mood depends on their attention
A message can transform your day. A lack of response can ruin it.
This emotional dependence is one of the clearest differences between simply liking someone and becoming trapped in a limerence cycle.
4. You idealise them
You focus heavily on their attractive qualities while minimising incompatibilities, flaws or behaviour that would concern you in another person.
You may also assume that this person could finally make you feel complete, secure, interesting or worthy.
5. You create an imagined relationship
You picture future conversations, trips, confessions and shared experiences.
Fantasy itself is normal. The problem begins when the fantasy becomes more emotionally important than the relationship that actually exists.
6. You repeatedly check their social media
You look at their profile, examine who they follow, search for signs of a new relationship or monitor when they are active.
Checking may reduce anxiety for a few moments, but it often strengthens the urge to check again.
7. You arrange accidental encounters
You may visit places where you expect them to be, adjust your routine or create reasons to contact them.
It can initially feel harmless, but repeated behaviour that ignores another person’s boundaries must be taken seriously.
8. You fear rejection so much that you avoid clarity
Limerence creates a painful contradiction. You desperately want confirmation, but you may avoid an honest conversation because a definite answer could destroy the fantasy.
Uncertainty hurts, yet uncertainty also preserves hope.
9. You neglect other parts of your life
Your sleep, appetite, work, studies, friendships or existing relationship may suffer.
A 2025 study developing the Limerence Questionnaire identified impaired sleep, impaired appetite, distractibility and neglect of responsibilities among relevant features reported by participants.
10. You feel that nobody else could compare
The person seems unique and irreplaceable.
You may believe that letting go would mean losing your only chance of experiencing a connection this powerful. That belief is part of what keeps the cycle alive.
Why Does Uncertainty Make Limerence Stronger?
Uncertainty is one of the most important ideas in understanding limerence.
A clear and secure relationship provides information. Both people gradually learn how the other feels. Expectations become more realistic. Fantasies are tested against everyday life.
Limerence often grows in the gaps where information is missing.
The person may be warm one day and distant the next. They may flirt without wanting a relationship. They may be emotionally unavailable, already committed to someone else or unsure what they want. There may be occasional contact followed by silence.
Every positive interaction renews hope.
Every absence creates longing.
Researchers have described uncertainty about reciprocation as a major force in maintaining limerence. Greater uncertainty may lead to more rumination, interpretation and desire for reassurance.
This resembles the psychological power of unpredictable rewards. When attention arrives inconsistently, the mind may become even more focused on obtaining it. You keep checking because this time there might be a message.
Limerence Versus Love
Limerence can feel like the deepest form of love because it is emotionally intense. Intensity, however, is not the same as intimacy.
Love develops through knowledge, reality, reciprocity and sustained care. You see the other person as a complete human being. You learn their limitations as well as their strengths. You can tolerate ordinary days, disagreements and periods of separation.
Limerence often depends on idealisation and possibility. You may know relatively little about the person while feeling that they are uniquely important to you.
Love asks:
Who is this person, and can we build a healthy life together?
Limerence asks:
What does this person’s attention say about my worth?
Love can be passionate, but it also allows room for work, friendships, privacy and independence.
Limerence tends to narrow your world.
Love respects reality.
Limerence frequently negotiates with fantasy.
Love can survive certainty.
Limerence is often strengthened by doubt.
This does not mean that every intense beginning is unhealthy. Mutual attraction can be exhilarating. Some relationships that begin with intense infatuation eventually develop into stable love.
The difference becomes clearer with time. When reality replaces fantasy, do trust, compatibility and mutual care remain? Or does the connection depend on pursuit, anxiety and emotional guessing?
Can Limerence Turn Into Real Love?
It can, but it does not always.
When attraction is genuinely mutual, both people may move from uncertainty into a real relationship. Idealisation gradually gives way to knowledge. The other person becomes less perfect but more real.
For love to develop, the imagined relationship must be replaced by an actual one.
That means honest communication, shared effort, boundaries, compatibility and the ability to see each other clearly.
Sometimes reciprocation reduces limerence because the uncertainty disappears. The person may suddenly seem more ordinary. In other cases, the relationship becomes secure and affectionate.
The strength of the original obsession does not predict the quality of the eventual relationship.
Limerence Versus a Crush
A crush can include excitement, fantasy and nervousness. You may think about the person frequently and hope that they notice you.
With limerence, the emotional stakes are usually much higher.
A crush says:
I really like this person.
Limerence says:
I need this person to choose me so that I can feel all right.
A crush can tolerate disappointment.
Limerence may interpret disappointment as a crisis.
A crush leaves space for curiosity.
Limerence fills missing information with idealised assumptions.
There is no perfect boundary separating one experience from the other. The clearest warning sign is loss of freedom. When your attention, routines and emotional stability seem controlled by the possibility of another person’s approval, the experience has moved beyond an enjoyable attraction.
Is Limerence a Mental Illness?
Limerence is not currently a formal mental health diagnosis.
It does not appear as a separate disorder in major psychiatric diagnostic manuals. It is better understood as a descriptive term for a pattern of obsessive romantic attachment and emotional dysregulation.
That does not mean people should dismiss it.
An experience does not need its own diagnostic label to cause serious distress. Limerence can interfere with sleep, concentration, work, existing relationships and self respect.
It may also overlap with other difficulties, including anxiety, depression, obsessive thinking, low self esteem or insecure attachment. These associations do not prove that any particular condition causes limerence. They do suggest that recovery may require looking beyond the romantic fixation itself.
What Causes Limerence?
There is no single established cause of limerence.
It can occur in people with very different personalities, histories and relationship experiences. Several factors may make the experience more likely or more difficult to escape.
Emotional loneliness
A person may appear socially connected but feel unseen, unwanted or emotionally isolated.
The limerent person can become a symbol of rescue from that loneliness.
Low self esteem
Attention from the other person may temporarily create a sense of worth.
Instead of asking whether the relationship meets your needs, you become focused on proving that you are worthy of being selected.
Anxious attachment
Some people experience a strong fear of abandonment or rejection and need frequent reassurance in close relationships.
Recent limerence research has found relationships between limerence and attachment anxiety, although attachment style should not be treated as a simple diagnosis or a complete explanation for every case.
Childhood emotional experiences
Inconsistent affection, emotional neglect or unpredictable caregiving may influence how some people respond to closeness and uncertainty as adults.
This does not mean that everyone who experiences limerence had a difficult childhood. It means that present day romantic obsession may sometimes connect with an older need to feel chosen, safe or important.
Escaping an unsatisfying life
Fantasy can provide relief from boredom, grief, relationship problems, low confidence or a lack of direction.
Thinking about the person becomes a private source of excitement.
Attraction to unavailable people
An unavailable person allows hope and fantasy to continue without the demands of a fully mutual relationship.
Sometimes the emotional distance feels safer than true intimacy, even though it is also painful.
Major life changes
Limerence may appear during periods of loneliness, bereavement, stress, career uncertainty or relationship breakdown.
The mind attaches enormous emotional meaning to someone who appears at a vulnerable moment.
Can You Experience Limerence While Married or in a Relationship?
Yes.
Being in a committed relationship does not prevent attraction, fantasy or limerence. A person may become fixated on a colleague, friend, former partner, online acquaintance or someone they barely know.
This can produce intense guilt.
The existence of a feeling does not determine what you do with it. Thoughts and emotions can arise without permission. Behaviour still requires responsibility.
Limerence during marriage may reveal unmet personal needs, relationship difficulties or a desire to escape part of your current life. It may also arise even when the existing relationship is generally loving.
The safest response is not to romanticise secrecy.
Avoid creating private intimacy with the other person while pretending the connection is harmless. Consider what the fixation is offering emotionally. Excitement? Validation? Escape? A sense of possibility? Feeling wanted?
Those needs deserve attention, but pursuing the fantasy is not the only way to address them.
Social Media and Limerence
Social media gives limerence a constant supply of material.
In the past, physical distance often reduced contact. Today, you can see photographs, locations, new followers, comments, relationship updates and signs of online activity at any hour.
Each detail invites interpretation.
A photograph becomes evidence about their emotional state. A song becomes a possible secret message. A new follower becomes a threat. A viewed story becomes proof that they are thinking about you.
Most of these interpretations cannot be verified.
The checking behaviour also trains your mind to treat the person as important. Every time you visit the profile, you strengthen the connection between emotional discomfort and seeking information about them.
You may believe you are checking because you still care.
Sometimes you still care because you keep checking.
The Stages of Limerence
Limerence does not follow an identical path for everyone, but many experiences contain three broad periods.
Initial attraction
Something about the person captures your attention.
There may be chemistry, admiration, emotional recognition or a sense that they understand you.
Intensification
You begin thinking about them more frequently.
Ambiguous interactions become significant. Fantasies expand. Your mood becomes increasingly dependent on signs of interest or rejection.
Crisis or decline
Reality eventually challenges the fantasy.
The person rejects you, begins another relationship, stops communicating or behaves in a way that no longer fits your idealised image.
The emotional attachment may then decline, persist or transfer to another person. Researchers have described several possible endings, including rejection, reciprocation, acceptance of a non romantic relationship or movement of the fixation towards somebody new.
How Long Does Limerence Last?
There is no reliable countdown for limerence.
Some episodes fade within months. Others can continue for years, particularly when contact remains inconsistent or the possibility of reciprocation is never fully resolved.
Published research has reported a wide range in duration and emphasises that episodes do not always end quickly or cleanly.
The important question is not simply how long limerence lasts naturally.
It is whether your daily behaviour continues to feed it.
Repeated checking, secret contact, fantasy rehearsals and searching for signs can keep the emotional system activated. Recovery often begins when you stop treating every thought as a reason to reconnect.
How to Overcome Limerence
There is no instant cure for limerence. Recovery is usually a process of reducing reinforcement, challenging fantasy, tolerating grief and rebuilding a life that is not organised around one person.
1. Name the experience honestly
Learning the word limerence can bring relief.
You are not necessarily experiencing a unique destiny that nobody else could understand. You may be experiencing a recognised pattern of intrusive romantic fixation.
Naming it creates distance.
Instead of saying, “They are the only person for me,” try saying, “I am having a limerent thought that this person is irreplaceable.”
The feeling remains, but it is no longer presented as an unquestionable fact.
2. Separate facts from interpretations
Write down what you actually know.
They replied after three days.
That is a fact.
They waited three days because they were frightened by the strength of their feelings.
That is an interpretation.
They smiled when they saw me.
That may be a fact.
The smile proves that they secretly want a relationship.
That is an interpretation.
Limerence survives by turning ambiguous information into emotionally satisfying stories.
3. Stop using feelings as evidence
Strong emotions feel meaningful.
You may think, “I would not feel this intensely unless the connection was special.”
Emotional intensity proves that the experience is intense. It does not prove that the relationship is mutual, healthy or destined to happen.
4. Reduce checking rituals
Notice how often you check messages, profiles, online status or mutual friends.
Do not merely rely on willpower. Change the environment.
Mute their account.
Remove shortcuts.
Archive conversations.
Stop asking friends for updates.
Keep your phone outside the bedroom.
Decide on specific times when you will check messages rather than responding to every urge.
Checking may produce short relief, but that relief teaches your brain to repeat the behaviour.
5. Consider a period of no contact
No contact can be helpful when every interaction restarts hope and rumination.
This does not need to be dramatic or punitive. It is not a strategy for making the other person miss you. It is a boundary designed to give your mind fewer emotional triggers.
No contact may be more complicated when the person is a colleague, family friend or someone with whom you share responsibilities. In that situation, use limited contact.
Keep conversations polite, brief and practical. Avoid emotional disclosures, private messaging and unnecessary opportunities to be alone together.
6. Stop feeding the imagined future
You may have spent months imagining what could happen.
The imagined relationship contains only selected scenes. It does not include incompatible routines, difficult conversations, family pressures, financial stress, boredom or conflicting values.
When a fantasy begins, gently return to what is happening now.
This is not about punishing yourself for daydreaming. It is about refusing to practise an attachment to a future that does not exist.
7. Allow yourself to grieve
Letting go of limerence can feel like a breakup even when no formal relationship occurred.
You are grieving a possibility.
That grief can include sadness, anger, embarrassment and emptiness. Do not shame yourself because the relationship existed mainly in your mind. Your emotional investment was still real.
Grief becomes easier when you stop reopening the wound to look for new evidence.
8. Rebuild neglected parts of yourself
Limerence narrows attention. Recovery requires expansion.
Return to people you have ignored.
Resume interests that existed before the fixation.
Make plans that have nothing to do with whether the other person responds.
Improve your sleep.
Exercise regularly.
Spend time outside.
Create goals that produce satisfaction through your own effort.
The aim is not to remain constantly busy so that you never feel anything. It is to remember that your life contains more than this attachment.
9. Identify the deeper need
Ask what the person represents.
Do they represent confidence?
Safety?
Adventure?
Sexual validation?
Intellectual connection?
A second chance?
Escape from an unhappy relationship?
Proof that you are desirable?
Once you identify the need, you can begin looking for healthier and more direct ways to meet it.
10. Practise tolerating uncertainty
You may never receive the perfect explanation.
You may never know exactly what the other person felt, why they behaved inconsistently or whether a different choice would have changed the outcome.
Recovery requires accepting that unanswered questions can remain unanswered.
Closure is sometimes a decision rather than information given to you by someone else.
11. Consider professional therapy
Therapy may help when limerence is affecting your work, sleep, relationships or ability to function.
A published case study used cognitive behavioural techniques, including methods adapted from treatment for compulsive rituals. The participant reported reductions in compulsive behaviour and dysfunctional thought patterns at follow up. This is promising but remains limited evidence from a single case, not proof of a universal treatment.
A therapist may help you explore obsessive thinking, attachment patterns, emotional needs, low self esteem, grief and boundaries.
Another Personal Story About Limerence Recovery
The following is another composite account.
Daniel had been speaking to a woman he met online. They exchanged long messages for several weeks, but every attempt to arrange a meeting became uncertain.
She would disappear for days and then return with an affectionate message.
Daniel interpreted every return as evidence of a deep connection. He told himself that she was frightened, busy or recovering from a previous relationship. His explanations protected the hope that they would eventually be together.
He checked his phone during meals, at work and in the middle of the night.
When she finally said she was not ready for a relationship, Daniel replied that he understood. Secretly, he continued waiting.
His recovery began when he wrote two versions of the story.
In the first version, he recorded what he had hoped would happen.
In the second, he recorded what had actually happened.
The difference was painful.
He had experienced moments of warmth, but not commitment. He had received attention, but not consistency. He had been attached to the potential of the relationship rather than its reality.
Daniel stopped checking her profile and deleted the private notes in which he had analysed their conversations. He began seeing friends he had neglected and returned to running in the evenings.
For several weeks, he still thought about her every day.
The important change was that he stopped obeying every thought.
Eventually, the thoughts became less urgent. He did not forget her. He simply stopped treating the memory as an instruction to return.
Limerence Journal Prompts
Writing can help move thoughts from an emotional loop into a more organised form.
Use these questions slowly. Honest answers are more useful than positive answers.
What do I genuinely know about this person?
What qualities have I added through imagination?
Which behaviours have I interpreted as signs of reciprocation?
What alternative explanations could exist?
How does contact with this person affect my mood?
What parts of my life have I neglected?
What do I believe being chosen by this person would prove about me?
Which emotional need does this fantasy appear to meet?
What has this person clearly communicated through actions?
What boundary would protect my peace?
What am I afraid will happen if I let go?
Who was I before this fixation began?
Which relationships deserve more of my attention?
What would recovery look like after one month?
What would I advise a close friend in the same position?
A Limerence Workbook for Guided Self Discovery
Understanding limerence intellectually is helpful, but recovery often requires repeated reflection. Thoughts that have been rehearsed for months rarely disappear after reading one article.
A structured workbook can help you identify triggers, examine the difference between fantasy and reality, record checking behaviours, explore emotional needs and observe changes over time.
The Limerence Self Discovery Workbook and Recovery Journal has been created for readers who want a private space to examine their experience and work through the process of letting go.
Readers in the United Kingdom can view the book here:
Buy the Limerence Self Discovery Workbook and Recovery Journal on Amazon UK
Readers in the United States can view the book here:
Buy the Limerence Self Discovery Workbook and Recovery Journal on Amazon USA
A workbook is not a replacement for professional mental health support. It can, however, provide structure when your thoughts feel repetitive or difficult to explain.
What Happens When You Stop Contact During Limerence?
The first stage of no contact can feel worse before it feels better.
Without messages, profile checks or imagined opportunities for connection, you may experience restlessness, sadness and a strong desire to seek reassurance.
This does not mean no contact is failing.
It may mean you are no longer receiving the small moments of hope that maintained the emotional cycle.
Avoid using no contact as a hidden romantic strategy. Counting days while waiting for the person to return keeps your attention centred on them.
The purpose is not to create a reaction.
The purpose is to reclaim your own attention.
Does the Other Person Know You Are Limerent?
Sometimes they know you have feelings for them but do not understand their intensity.
Sometimes they have no idea.
A person may believe they are participating in a normal friendship while you are analysing every interaction. They may enjoy attention without wanting a relationship. They may also have attempted to establish distance that you have interpreted as temporary uncertainty.
Do not assume that emotional intensity creates a shared understanding.
Respect direct communication and observable boundaries.
Another person is not responsible for regulating your emotions simply because your feelings are powerful.
Can Limerence Come Back?
Yes.
You may feel better for weeks and then experience a surge of longing after seeing a photograph, hearing a song or receiving an unexpected message.
A resurgence does not erase your progress.
Recovery is better measured through behaviour than the complete absence of emotion.
Did you feel the urge to check but choose not to?
Did you notice the fantasy without expanding it?
Did you protect your boundary?
Did you continue with your day?
Those are signs that the attachment has less control, even when feelings briefly return.
When Should You Seek Help?
Consider speaking to a qualified mental health professional when your thoughts about the person are interfering with sleep, work, study, parenting, friendships or an existing relationship.
Support is particularly important if you feel unable to control repeated contact, monitoring or behaviour that crosses the other person’s boundaries.
Seek urgent help if the distress leads to thoughts of harming yourself or another person.
Limerence can feel humiliating because you may understand the situation logically while remaining emotionally trapped in it. A good therapist should help you examine the pattern without mocking or shaming you.
Frequently Asked Questions About Limerence
Is limerence the same as being in love?
No. Limerence is usually centred on obsessive preoccupation, uncertainty and the need for reciprocation. Love is more strongly connected with mutual knowledge, reality, care, respect and emotional security.
Why can I not stop thinking about someone?
Your thoughts may be reinforced by uncertainty, fantasy, intermittent attention and repeated checking. The person may also represent a deeper emotional need, such as validation, belonging, excitement or security.
Does limerence mean the connection is special?
It means the experience feels powerful to you. It does not prove that the relationship is mutual, compatible or destined to develop.
Can rejection make limerence worse?
Yes. Rejection may intensify rumination, particularly when it is ambiguous or followed by occasional warmth. Clear boundaries combined with reduced contact are usually more helpful than repeated attempts to reinterpret the rejection.
Should I tell the person about my limerence?
That depends on the relationship, your intentions and whether disclosure would respect their boundaries. A confession should not be used to pressure them into managing your emotions. Speaking to a therapist or writing privately may be safer when the person has already expressed disinterest.
Is no contact always necessary?
No. Complete no contact is not practical in every situation. Limited contact may be more appropriate when you work together or share genuine responsibilities. The aim is to reduce emotional reinforcement and unnecessary intimacy.
Can limerence happen without sexual attraction?
Yes. Research and personal accounts suggest that limerence does not always include a strong sexual component. The central need may be emotional reciprocation, attachment, admiration or validation.
Can a limerence workbook help?
A workbook may help you record triggers, challenge assumptions, identify patterns and observe your recovery. It should be used as a reflective tool rather than a substitute for professional care when distress is severe.
Learning to Choose Reality
Letting go of limerence does not require pretending that the person meant nothing.
They may have appeared during an important period of your life. They may have awakened emotions you had not felt for years. They may have shown you how strongly you want connection, tenderness, excitement or recognition.
You can honour what the experience revealed without continuing to live inside the fantasy it created.
The goal is not to become colder.
It is to become freer.
You can remember someone without monitoring them.
You can miss someone without contacting them.
You can feel disappointment without turning it into proof that you are unlovable.
You can accept that a connection felt powerful while also accepting that it was not the relationship you needed.
Recovery begins when you stop asking whether the fantasy might still become real and begin asking what a healthy, reciprocal and peaceful life would look like now.
DISCLAIMER
This article is provided for general educational purposes and does not diagnose or treat any medical or mental health condition. Limerence is not currently a formal psychiatric diagnosis. Speak to a qualified mental health professional if intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviour or emotional distress are affecting your daily life. Seek urgent local support if you believe you may harm yourself or another person.
REFERENCES
American Psychological Association. APA Dictionary of Psychology entry on limerence.
Marshall, L., Waldeck, D., Pancani, L., Churchill, S. and Tyndall, I. Development and Validation of the Limerence Questionnaire. Psychological Reports, first published online in 2025.
Wyant, B. E. Treatment of Limerence Using a Cognitive Behavioral Approach: A Case Study. Journal of Patient Experience, 2021.
Tennov, D. Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love, 1979.