Is love always healthy?

I think an intense unhealthy attachment is often confused with the word love.

I think what is called love is unhealthy when a person feels they can't live without the other, when they are absolutely dependant upon the other person for their emotional stability.

Love is unhealthy if a person is enamored with another person, and can only feel secure in the relationship when they are able to manipulate the behaviors of the object of their affection to satisfy themselves.

I could go on and on about this topic. I probably will later.

 

Interesting question.

'Love' is an emotion; a complex network of interlinking stimuli that can produce a euphoric, idealized state of mind we generally reserve for people important to our lives.

Like other emotions, love is one of many transient intellectual responses to environmental cues. We experience emotion to elevate our chance at accurately perceiving and forecasting what to do next in our physical world. Trial-and-error behavioral patterns in our genetic past shaped which emotional behavior we retained, and which was discarded.

Emotion is probably better understood as refined psychological inheritance, specialized over time by our advanced frontal lobes. The sophistication of emotion is one of many evolutionary amenities that distinguishes us from our relatives in the animal kingdom.

That said, the adage 'love heals all wounds' is probably more intended as poetic admiration, than as a means to clinically categorize the utility of love.

If responsibly experienced, it can be immeasurably gratifying and uplift even the dampest of spirits. If our love (especially romantic love) is rejected by the object of our fancy, we can downward spiral into a sea of irrationality, ranging from turgid self-doubt to malignant retaliation. In short, love offers a vast range of possibility for those courageous to demonstrate it without fear or desire for reciprocity.

Love is less about who we cherish, than about how we choose to honor them.

From there, anything is possible.

 

i agree very much with what alt ctrl del wrote.

in terms of being treatable/curable, i do not think that an unheathy attachment that we mistake as love itself is an isolated incident but rather a manifestation of deeper issues that require more work within oneself. sure, the receiver person of this affection can help the situation, but ultimately can only do so much (if he/she is even willing).

many times we generate our own pain and cause ourselves unfounded damage in the entrapment of our own expections and desires. when the desire is unhealthy, it is founded primarily on lack and not love for that person or even oneself. i think if the person receiving does not wish to do harm, is neutral, or wants to better the situation, then further damage can only be caused by the person experiencing this extreme 'love'.

as for cognitive dissonance, i don't think it can be healthy as long as one is not forced to make a decision. if i understood the way you define decision, sometimes making a decision can give closure and being indecisive can enlarge the problem as it remains unresolved.

 

I don't think any emotions are inherently "healthy" or "unthealthy," since they serve evolutionary purposes. They can only be considered bad or good within a certain context. In the case of love, it can be bad when it is devoted to an untrustworthy person, or it in some other way unduly compromises the safety of the lover's well-being. Its occasional potential to cause or allow harm is what makes it unhealthy.

 

Unhealthy love isn't healthy.

My question is how do you define healthy love vs unhealthy love?

 

http://www.lightshifter.com/toxicluv.htm

Good place to start.

 

In answer to the title of the thread.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

NOO

 

Although the rainbow background was painful to read, that is an interesting chart on the differences. I would elaborate on that further, but I haven't the slightest idea what this notion of 'love' is supposed to be. This article appears to be talking about the differences between a healthy and unhealthy romantic relationship, which seems to differ a degree from 'love'.

 

Evolution isn't a rule it is a pattern.

 

Love, or emotion is usually what bonds a relationship..it's a motivator of behaviors that compose a relationship, whether healthy emotions or unhealthy destructive emotions.

Maybe something akin to what TLM said.. Something like the emotions are unhealthy once acted on in a way that is self-destructive or destructive to another in some way.

 

Oh, of course. There are everyday examples of that all around you. They are, sadly, not hard to find. But really it is a result of "love" being transformed into something else.

Another problem is one persons definition of "love" might not fit the others, and the feeling won't cross from person to person. This is what happens between me and my dad.

 

Of course, that really isn't that hard to sort out.

 

Rainrise said:

I think the unhealthy aspect begins within the individual psyche, and then their 'loving' actions manifest as unhealthy behavior. I don't see how love can corrupt a healthy mind.

 

Errr???

Like someone being physically or emotionally unhealthy?

 

I think it would only be unhealthy if the person who still loved could not move on with their life, and they remained tortured as a result of their feelings.

If the person who still loves is able to let the other go and be free and pursue whatever it is that makes them happy, get over the rejection and accept the end of the relationship and move on to keep living their life.. Then still loving when a relationship ends is not unhealthy.

 

NEW QUESTION!

Is being loved always healthy/