Limerence is an intense, chronic, and involuntary state of unreciprocated obsessive relational longing for a specific individual (the limerent object, LO). Limerence exists on a continuum, but research on its pathological form ('impairing limerence') has been limited. This paper presents two studies that advance understanding of impairing limerence. Study 1 is the largest quantitative investigation of limerence to date (N = 1647) and charts core features, psychological correlates, and clinical comorbidities. Findings indicate that limerence starts during adolescence (18-years) and then frequently reoccurs across adulthood (∼5 episodes), with episodes involving a prolonged (2-year) obsessive fixation and preoccupation with a LO. Limerent individuals reported elevated adverse childhood experiences, insecure attachment, and obsessive-compulsive cognitive traits. The rate of psychiatric multi-morbidity for limerent individuals was 42% (i.e., simultaneously reaching caseness for anxiety, depression, dissociation, and maladaptive daydreaming). Study 2 is the first to use experience-sampling methodology to intensively capture and model the cognitive-affective dynamics of impairing limerent episodes in real time over 7-days (N = 51). This revealed the high frequency of LO cognitions (50% of waking thought), and these thoughts were intrusive and immersive, with strong links to negative affect. Intrusive-distracting fantasy emerged as the dominant thought pattern, particularly during states of sadness and loneliness. Taken together, limerence appears underpinned by trauma and relational insecurity and maintained by obsessive-compulsive traits and maladaptive daydreaming. Findings shed light on the need for formal diagnostic criteria, identifies treatment targets and highlights the need evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions for limerence.
Evans et al. (2026) studied this question.