Falling in love is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world. You see life through rose colored glasses and everything begins to make perfect sense. In the early stages of love, there’s butterflies in your stomach, you can’t exist exist without your person and you desperately hope they feel the same way. That intense feeling has a name - limerence, and for many people, that stage of the relationship never ends. Is it dangerous? Well, kind of. It can lead to love addiction.

While our culture glorifies star crossed lovers and intense passion, many therapists recognize love addiction as a painful and devastating threat to true happiness. Often, because of childhood trauma like abuse or neglect, a person can still hold on to that child inside of them that wants to be loved. Instead of choosing booze or drugs, a person can turn to love to cope with their childhood pains. And, while the road to recovery isn’t easy - it’s entirely possible.

In this Huffington Post feature from Psychotherapist Dan Lacovara, he explains how a person’s best chance at real, healthy love is by first loving himself. Our inner child cannot heal unless we create space to heal our old wounds, face our old patterns and learn to embrace and accept the powerful human that we are. Love can be healed by love, the kind of love you must give yourself. How Men's Vows sees it - loving yourself always wins!