Adele syndrome: can unrequited love drive you crazy
Miscellaneous / / July 20, 2023
A broken heart hurts, but it takes a deeper reason to be upset.
What is Adélie syndrome and what are its symptoms
Adélie syndrome is a condition in which a person is obsessed with the object of love passion, has unrealistic expectations, and may chase beloved in the hope of reciprocity.
Another name for this disorder is obsessive love disorder, and it Maybe have the following features:
- obsessive thoughts about a lover, a desire to constantly be together;
- a constant need to do something to "confirm" one's love;
- spending a lot of time looking for and viewing photos of a person;
- constant calls and messages to the object of passion;
- the pursuit person, checking the places and activities in which he participates;
- belief that feelings are mutual, even if he directly says that this is not so;
- problems with friends or family during an obsession with a particular person;
- self-harm to relieve suffering, suicide attempts.
Syndrome name received because of the sad story of Adele Hugo, the youngest daughter of the famous French writer.
A beautiful and musically gifted girl grew up in Paris. After the coup of 1851, the Hugo family, fleeing political persecution, was forced to move to the Channel Islands. There, Adele met the British army officer Albert Pinson, who became the object of her obsessive passion.
Some sources claim that the man wooed Adele, but was rejected, in others - that Victor Hugo contributed to the break, because he was an ardent nationalist and did not want a foreign son-in-law.
Anyway, Albert and Adele broke up, and the assigned officer left for Halifax, a city in Nova Scotia, a province of Canada. Adele, besides herself with longing for her lover, took advantage of the absence of her mother and went after him.
The girl was obsessed with her passion and wrote to her relatives that she was married, although in fact Pinson had no connection with her. She suffered from schizophrenia and delusions, led a beggarly life and stopped communicating with her family.
According to one version, Adele left Nova Scotia to follow her love to Barbados, where she wandered until she was returned to France at the age of 42. According to another, her brother Francois-Victor Hugo brought the poor thing to his homeland straight from Halifax at the age of 34.
Be that as it may, after returning Adele was sent to psychiatric hospitalwhere she stayed until her death at the age of 85.
Can unrequited love drive you crazy?
Apparently, it wasn't love that drove Adele crazy. Even before meeting Pinson, the girl suffered from depression, and Hugo's family had stories of mental disorders. For example, the writer's brother was ill schizophrenia.
In addition, at the age of 13, Adele survived the death of her older sister, and then from Paris went to the island with "almost monastic conditions." Her mother wrote to her husband that in this situation the girl thinks too much, and her thoughts are irrational and destructive for her.
Thus, Adele already had the prerequisites for the disease, and although unrequited love could be the last straw, this was clearly not the only reason for the girl's madness.
Yes, strong feelings can cause a lot of pain. An emotionally traumatized person suffers from a loss of trust, loses self-esteem, angry, experiencing a sense of loss.
At the same time, most people cope quite successfully with painful experiences without developing dependence on the object of passion, and only a small percentage develop obsessive love disorder.
What disorders can lead to Adélie's syndrome
Adélie's syndrome is not included in the official list of diseases, and behind it may hiding several mental problems at once.
1. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) — mental illness, in which a person visit obsessive thoughts - obsessions with which he tries to cope by performing certain actions - rituals - compulsions. Some psychologists suggestthat Adele, in addition to schizophrenia, also suffered from this ailment.
2. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) — disease, in which the person has hypersensitive, has difficulty controlling their emotions and behavior, has unstable self-esteem, may put themselves in danger or inflict self-harm.
3. Attachment problems. In one small research with the participation of 290 students, they found that people with an ambivalent type of attachment most often suffer from obsessive love. This can form if the parents or guardians of the child behave inconsistently: either they satisfy the needs of the baby, or they remain indifferent. As a result of such upbringing, a person does not feel safe, is strongly attached to people and is afraid that he will be abandoned.
4. delusional disorder - false beliefs in which a person continues believe in spite of clear evidence to the contrary. One of the varieties of delusional disorder is erotomania - the belief that the other is in love with the patient, although he directly or through behavior proves the opposite. Those suffering from erotomania may chase an object of adoration, annoy with letters and calls, and even try to enter the house or workplace.
In addition, Adélie's syndrome is often accompanied depressive and anxiety disorders.
Is it possible to get rid of the Adele syndrome
Like other disorders, Adélie syndrome is treatable.
If the obsession with a person lasts for a long time and seriously impairs the quality of life, it is worth contacting psychiatrist. Specific treatment will depend on the disorders that accompany obsessive love.
Specialist Maybe prescribe pharmacological support, such as antidepressants, and also advise on the method of psychotherapy.
This approach will not only help to cope with painful feelings, but also protect against them in the future. By building a healthier relationship with themselves and the world around them, a person is less likely to fall in love to the point of obsession again.
Read also🥀
- “I just lay at home and mentally crawled towards the cemetery”: what is it like to live with obsessive-phobic disorder
- What is Alice in Wonderland syndrome and what to do about it
- What is Angelman syndrome and how to live with it
- How Tourette's syndrome differs from the habit of swearing and how to live with it
- “I was told that demons are sitting in my body”: a story about how to live with schizophrenia