Limerence—a state of intense emotional infatuation—can disrupt even the strongest marriages. At Marriage Helper, we offer guidance and resources to help you recognize the signs of limerence, understand its impact, and take steps toward healing.
If you want to know how long affairs last, we must first establish what kind of affair it is. There are 3 different types of affairs.
"I would like your wise opinion about how to deal with my husband who is involved with another woman. He's coming today & I told him I want to talk but I don't want to argue."
"Did I Push My Spouse Into an Affair?" We often receive [...]
Though limerence by its very nature is relatively short-lived (typically lasting somewhere between 3 months and 36 months) it is a very real and intense emotion/feeling. When a person decides to leave a limerent relationship, or if they are the one abandoned by the other, the emotions don't immediately disappear.
Most people have never even heard of the word “limerence.” But if someone has heard of it, they probably ignored it because it didn't seem to make any sense. Limerence is a feeling of being madly in love with someone. It is a euphoric sensation that has no comparison.
You suspected it long before you knew it for sure. Your spouse changed but you couldn’t quite explain the changes in a way that seemed to make sense to anyone else. You thought that you were imagining things, being insecure in thinking your spouse had someone else.
Limerence is being madly and overwhelmingly in love to the point of obsession. It's what makes us believe in soul mates and this can have a negative impact on our lives and marriages.