Loving someone generally means you want the best for them. You want them to be happy and successful, and to live a joyful existence.

With obsessive love disorder, the desire to see your loved one thrive turns into something else — a fixation on protecting them, or even controlling them.

That sense of love turns into an obsession, and sometimes you start to view the person you love as more of an object you possess than an independent human being.

While obsessive love disorder isn’t an official diagnosis, what you’re experiencing is real and has the potential to impact your relationships.

Symptoms of obsessive love disorder
“Obsessive love disorder explains a condition when someone gets extensively attached to another person with whom they are in love,” explains psychiatrist Amelia Alvin from the Mango Clinic, Florida.

She notes, “In obsessive love disorder, people take their protective nature to lengths and start controlling the person they love. It can cause dysfunctional relationships. It is not classified as a mental or physical disorder but is just a state. Obsessive love disorder has symptoms like any other human behavior.”