Earlier in the week I posted a comment where I stated that limerence was related to OCD. I made this statement based on an article and separate statements from one of the leading researchers into obsessive love. However, I've just seen a video from a leading OCD researcher who makes a key distinction between the two disorders. (He didn't actually mention limerence explicitly, but I feel his general point is applicable.)
OCD, whether it exists as Pure-O or with the compulsions which contribute to its name, is an anxiety disorder. This is not news to anyone, but it's important to remember when contrasting it with limerence, which behaves more like a psychological addiction such as gambling. In OCD, the sufferer experiences an anxiety-producing thought and then engages in compulsions or ruminative thinking to assuage that anxiety. In other words, the symptoms of OCD are attempts by the sufferer to go from a state of anxiety to one of homeostasis.
This is not the case for limerence or psychological addictions. These disorders involve the reward center of the brain. In limerence, the symptoms (ruminations focused on the limerent object, proximity-seeking behavior, etc.) are attempts to recreate a dopamine-fueled euphoria. Instead of going from anxiety to stability, the mind is trying to go from non-euphoria to euphoria. There are different chemicals involved here as well as different parts of the brain. These are not the same disorder.
I intentionally chose not to say that limerence involved going from "stability" to euphoria because, first of all, there's no guarantee that one starts from a neutral state in limerence. In fact, it's believed that low serotonin levels are a key contributor, so it's more likely that the starting point is dysthymia or depression. Second of all, and perhaps even more pertinent to this discussion, the emotional cycle which develops in limerence means that it *isn't* neutrality which precedes the euphoria -- it's doubt.
Limerence has two necessary components: hope and doubt. There is no limerence without uncertainty. The cycle which the limerent subject then experiences is the clichéd "she loves me; she loves me not" rumination. Thoughts of romantic reciprocation produce a dopamine-fueled euphoria, which further depresses already-low serotonin levels. This ultimately engenders a hopeless phase marked by serious doubts about the possibility of reciprocation, which in turn encourage the mind to seek another dopamine high. And thus the cycle is born.
One can maybe see how this "disorder" (it's actually not considered a disorder by anyone, including the psychologist who coined the term) would seem like OCD. Despair centered around an object leads to obsessive ruminations about that object to quell the despair, with those machinations repeating over and over again. But again, these are different processes. Limerence is really an obsession stemming from mental responses to an exhilarating feeling, often aided by an unresolvable external situation, whereas OCD is an obsession resulting from faulty mental responses to anxiety.
There is one important caveat to this, and that is the fact that after considerable time, a limerent subjects' thinking usually makes an important shift. Eventually, ruminations *do* become about quelling anxiety -- the anxiety stemming from being unable to stop the limerence. At this point, does limerence transform into true OCD (specifically, Pure-O)? In the beginning of limerence the negative thoughts are *doubt* about the romantic feelings of the object -- they are not the same type of fear as OCD anxieties. Eventually, however, the thoughts do turn to true anxiety, as the focus of the limerent subject shifts subtly from the limerent object to not being able to stop the intrusive thoughts about the object. To put it glibly: the obsession becomes the obsession.
I actually think this is what's happened to me. The mental torment has shifted from obsessing over my object to obsessing over obsessing over my object. With all due respect to actual OCD sufferers, I actually think this is an improvement, for reasons I might write about tomorrow. Or not. Iunno.