We’ve all had crushes that make us question our sanity. No matter what we do, we can’t seem to get that person out of our head. Our friends tell us we’re crazy, that the object of our desire isn’t interested in us. Others will scream infatuation — nothing more than a fantasy created in the mischievous recesses of our minds. But you know better. You saw the way they smiled at you, the way their gaze lingered and pupils dilated.
And so you carry on. One day everything is blissful — you have their attention and the signs are clear — you’re elated and bathing in the euphoria of your apparent certainty. The next day everything changes — rapidly. You sit anxiously, filling the radio silence with your thoughts — why have they gone cold, was it something I did or something I said? Now you have doubt — and you don’t like it.
Before you know it, a psychological tension builds and begins to envelop your mind. You feel increasingly distressed and confused by their behavior, spending hours analyzing it in your head, maybe even replaying conversations to find where it went wrong. The question you are left wondering lingers uncomfortably in your mind — why can’t I stop thinking about this person?
Now before you rationalize that you met “the one,” let’s talk about some critical psychological concepts that may be…
