It was in an effort to understand this that I wound up speaking with a 44-year-old woman named Marisa, whose story offered a vivid example of the very real problems that can be categorized as love addiction. She had always known that something was different about her, romantically, but did not know how to fix it. She was a prolific serial dater who felt a constant need to focus her affection on somebody. She got deeply involved with unavailable or married men, sometimes supporting them financially. Her own marriage failed. She once got into a car accident while crying over a voice mail message from a boyfriend. She dated an abusive drug addict, on and off, for years, feeling unable to leave even when her life was in danger. Her next boyfriend had anger issues; again, she couldn’t seem to quit.