Am I in love?

I'm now 17 years old and despite going through so many changes over the past four years, I've liked this guy constantly throughout. It started out as a simple crush when I first met him but the more I got to know him the more I liked him. We haven't dated and we've both changed so much over the years and I know we wouldn't work well together. However I can't seem to get him out of my head and I don't know what to do. Is this what being in love is? I'm so confused.

Reply 1

MelanieDickson

Sounds more like limerence.

'Love' is a pretty vague term. Personally I find love (or the thing that I call 'love') much more comfortable than what you describe. It's quite a slow emotion, something that builds up over a long time, and doesn't really interfere with my day-to-day life. What you're talking about sounds a lot more like limerence/infatuation, especially if you're talking about obsessive tendencies and intrusive thoughts.

The two aren't always mutually exclusive, but personally I find infatuation is usually rather unhealthy if you let it go unchecked, so I would work on not thinking about him as much if it's interfering with your daily life.