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Erotomania?
I have two questions:
1.) Can a person with erotomania be aware that they have it?
2.) If a person believes they are in love with a celebrity or that the celebrity is their soulmate but is aware that the celebrity does not know them and is not in love with them back, is this still classified as erotomania?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Mental health?
1.) Absolutely. It’s a delusional disorder. Most people are not able to recognize their own irrational thinking and delusions. If they can recognize them for the unhealthy obsession they are, they tend to fight them.
2.) Although that might not fit the full medical definition of erotomania, it is a very serious obsession and calling someone your ‘soulmate’ it's only the tiniest step away. It's a bit like saying "Is it okay for someone to do cocaine even though they know it's really bad for them and they will be really careful not to get addicted?". Of course that’s not okay. It could be a lot worse, but it still isn't okay.
I think the best thing to understand, if you or someone you know is having this kind of irrational obsession, is that there are reasons for it, and the reasons aren’t ‘love’. The reason is the way our brains deal with love.
Romantic love feels REALLY good. When we experience it our brain floods will all sorts of neurotransmitters that make us feel really good. Our brain rewards us for being in love, and that reward is the exact thing that motivates us to do crazy things for the one we love, so it’s useful is helping a relationship develop and move forward. In normal relationships, that intense reward fades slowly over time, which is why relationships start out really intense, but become more comfortable and routine after a while.
Except if the love is not returned and it turns into an obsession. Then our brain might just keep on rewarding us with the good feelings. The brain doesn’t know it should give up, so it just tries harder to make the love happen by giving you more and more good feelings. An erotomaniac clings to their obsession to keep those good feelings coming, it’s like encouraging your own body to give you a natural kind of cocaine.
Unfortunately, erotomania is a bit hard to spot in others unless you are on the receiving end of it. People are often good at hiding the full extent of their delusions from others, without knowing why, they understand it’s not okay to let everyone else know about their irrational thoughts. It’s a pretty standard way for a mental illness to ‘protect’ itself.
If you or a friend has crossed over into thinking a celebrity is their ‘soul mate’ then that person should seek counseling. That crosses the line from star worship and being a fan, too irrational thinking, and it should be nipped in the bud.
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