erotomania
“I know that you love me!” – When love becomes madness
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“If he only knew me, he would immediately realize that I am the woman of his life.” Unrequited feelings or delusions of love? When affection becomes pathological, it’s called erotomania.
I was 13 years old when I met my first love – the cute guy from 10A. I knew that as soon as I saw him. Rarely have I been more happy about the double math lesson than at the beginning of our “relationship”. I was never closer to him than in the break between the two hours of tedious arithmetic. Ten minutes for love! Next date: bus stop. Of course very secretly, talking was not necessary and in real life I would not have dared to speak to him. But I was still sure: He loves me, he just doesn’t know it yet! But as my mother used to say so beautifully: other mothers also have beautiful sons. And she was right! 10A was later replaced by Robbie Williams, Johnny Depp and Leo DiCaprio. All potential candidates for the Hollywood-style romance. But of course, even as a completely confused teenager, at some point you realize that these feelings remain one-sided and are a pure pipe dream. But there are also cases in which exactly that does not happen and from imagined love a delusion arises, also called erotomania.
What is erotomania?
Erotomania is colloquially referred to as love mania and is known as mental disorder classified under the diagnostic code ICD-10. The bizarre suffering is shown by a irrational, delusional love to an unavailable person, such as a celebrity, an acquaintance, or even a complete stranger.
Single people are particularly affected women between the ages of 40 and 60. From the patient’s point of view, however, it feels exactly the other way around, as if the secret lover were stalking them. What is fatal: as long as the besieged does not know anything about the problem, he may still unknowingly feed the intoxication of love and the delusions. A casual glance becomes a token of love transfigured, dismissive or reserved behavior interpreted as shyness or the most insane reasons such as an existing partnership or a difficult professional situation are put forward. The Love madness is unshakable and constructs its very own reality.
Erotomania and stalking – These are the symptoms
An erotomaniac is 100% convinced that the love he or she feels for their unattainable object of desire must be mutual, even if the loved one expressly denies love. The delusion of love persists and the loved one becomes central focus in the patient’s life. Erotomania is therefore usually accompanied by stalking, i.e. tracking the loved one. Dozens of phone calls, love letters and gifts, even surprise visits can seem, and even become, threatening. stalking has been a criminal offense since 2007.
Sick with Love – How Erotomania is Treated
Erotomania rarely occurs in its pure form, rather it is usually pre-stage or part of schizophrenia or goes with manic-depressive disorder along. With symptoms like hallucinations or paranoid experience the already difficult treatment of delusions of love often becomes even more problematic, above all because Those affected usually do not perceive themselves as sick and therefore refuse therapy. However, if the patient agrees to therapy, they must first root cause analysis operate. are not rare emotional gaps the reason for the disturbance that needs to be eliminated. If schizophrenia is diagnosed at the same time, it is treated with neuroleptics.