Limerence: A kind of obsessive attraction that is not love
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Limerence is more than a crush, psychologists say, and it can persist for months or years.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: VANESSA SABA/NYTIMES
Melinda Wenner Moyer
NEW YORK – For eight years, Jordan felt as if she had fallen under a powerful spell. She had what others would have considered a casual relationship with a co-worker, but despite not knowing him well, she was powerfully drawn to him, and certain he was her soulmate.
“I thought about him every day, all the time,” said Jordan, 35, who asked that only her first name be used, to maintain her privacy. She thought of him with every song lyric. She invented reasons to contact him. She had elaborate fantasies in which they ended up together.
