Angry at Love
Most of us aspire to find love. It is unquestionably one of the most important goals of our lives. Because of this nearly universal truth, it isn’t always easy for people to grasp the fact that most of us are also angry at love. It is often the case that no matter how long we search or how much we’ve longed for it, once we fall in love, we find ourselves challenged in ways that incite fear, anger and avoidance. At such times, we find ways to push away the people closest to us to create distance and to free ourselves of the inherent burdens of being in love.
Burdens, in the case of love and relationships, can refer to the painful realities of what it means to care for someone and have them care for us in return. Being valued by a loved one challenges our preexisting negative views toward ourselves. We have to recognize our anxiety over losing an identity we’ve accepted all our lives. Moreover, as we come to value someone, we have to face our fears of losing a person who now means a great deal to us. Being in love makes our lives a lot more meaningful, and therefore, both frightening and painful. Our tendency to feel angry at love directed toward us is a defense we all develop in response to these deep-seated fears of intimacy.
Read about Understanding Fear of Intimacy
How Does Our Anger Toward Love Show Itself?
Relationships often fall apart. It’s common for people who were once inseparable to break up and never see each other again. So many couples turn from madly in love to mad with loathing, and all parties are left to wonder what happened. What drove them apart? This shift away from love often starts with our fear of intimacy, which leads us to act out toward our loved ones.
First, it may be subtle things: less eye contact, fewer acts of physical affection, a slight resistance to share activities we once both enjoyed, an increase in critical observations, lowered levels of passion, a slow breakdown of respect for each other’s independence and boundaries. When we act out these patterns of anger toward our partner, we are often truly angry at love itself. When our partner looks at us with kind eyes, it may start to get on our nerves. When he or she reaches for our hand, we may be a little more likely to pull away. These are acts of kindness, intimacy and affection, yet we start to recoil and react as if we are repelled by them.
Eventually, these patterns will become increasingly harmful. As we get closer in a relationship, we actually feel more threatened, and therefore, angrier at being loved. We may “turn it down a notch” by starting to substitute dynamics of passion and love with habitual ways of relating. We may fall into a more deadened routine, avoiding the activities we once shared with our partner that challenged or excited us. We may substitute real love for what psychologist Dr. Robert Firestone conceptualizes as a “Fantasy Bond,” an illusion of connection that we form based on our defenses. When we fall into this illusion, we frequently fall out of love. We replace form over substance, interacting as a single unit, instead of admiring each other as two separate individuals.
Read about The Fantasy Bond
Our resistance toward love often shows itself in the form of a fantasy bond. A couple who falls victim to their fears of intimacy and resorts to fantasy modes of relating will soon find the relationship crumbling before their eyes. They will start to lose themselves in the relationship, feeling guarded and angry, instead of attracted and vulnerable. Eventually, they will feel contempt for a partner they once adored.
Why Do We Feel Angry at Love Directed Toward Us?
As Dr. Firestone wrote in his blog, “You Don’t Want What You Say You Want,” “Most of us profess that we want to find a loving partner, but the experience of real love disrupts fantasies of love that have served as a survival mechanism since early childhood.” These “survival mechanisms” refer to the defenses we formed in response to undesirable circumstances in our early lives. In his book, Fear of Intimacy, Dr. Firestone illustrates this point, writing, “When people have been hurt in their earliest relationships, they fear being hurt again and are reluctant to take another chance on being loved. They utilize distancing behaviors to preserve their psychological equilibrium.”
Our early relationship experiences heavily influence the way we relate in our adult relationships. For example, if we were rejected or dismissed as kids, we may feel insecure as adults. We may seek partners who leave us feeling familiarly empty and alone, or we may choose people who are overbearing to compensate for what we felt we lacked. Either way, we will recreate negative dynamics, rather than seeking out new, healthy ways of relating. We do this, not because we mean to, but because we are subconsciously driven toward what is comfortable or familiar.
Read about How Your Attachment Style Impacts Your Relationships
If we choose someone who doesn’t fit with the negative aspects of our past, we often start to feel uncomfortable, suspicious, questioning or angry. When we feel loved by someone, it challenges us to see ourselves in a new light and to stop viewing ourselves as we were seen in our family or childhood setting, where we may have felt a lack of love or respect. Of course, our childhoods may have been full of positive, loving experiences as well, but even the best of parents can’t anticipate and respond to all of a child’s needs. Our experiences, both good and bad, are likely to shape our self-image and the way we envision, and ultimately shape, our closest relationships.
Breaking our self-defeating patterns means getting to know ourselves – coming to understand our pasts and how they influence our present. On the surface, our feelings about love may seem positive and hopeful, but deeper inside, we may have fears about being loved. We may feel angry at love at times we don’t expect toward the people we value the most. When this happens, it’s important to have patience with ourselves and self-compassion. We should aim to challenge maladaptive behaviors that would hurt our relationship or create distance between us and our partner. We should be aware of the times we push love away and think about why these moments make us uncomfortable. How do they tie in with our past?
In coming to know ourselves, we open up our capacity to experience love. We can start to feel less angry at love expressed toward us. Even when we notice feeling angry at love from our partner, we can choose how we act, so that we get closer, instead of allowing ourselves to act in ways that would sabotage a worthy relationship.
About the Author
I am so glad I found this website. Reading some of the articles here made me cry out loud, like really howl. I suddenly realized how afraid I have been of loving, and why I often don’t bother dating or going out even when I can. I keep saying its too much trouble, it takes time and energy but I think what it means/meant was I have been afraid of facing the painful feelings and insecurities that arise when I do get involved with someone. So to avoid facing the pain, I stopped trying to find the one thing I know I care deeply about – love
Thank you for your comment, Janet. We are touched to hear that reading these articles lead to such a powerful, personal insight. Fear of love is much more common than most people think. It is actually one of the main topics that Dr. Lisa Firestone will be addressing in her upcoming eCourse with PsychAlive. If you are interested, you can learn more here.
Thanks again for sharing your story.
To be honest i dont know all those social codes and being a person with Aspergers Syndrome it isnt easy finding a therapist that covers medical in my Area.
I really dont know what to think of love anymore. I know i’ll love again but not sure when. I’ve been out of a relationship with my last GF who was also my first GF and thank god that Betch doesn’t show her face. Sry for the profanity but i’m still battling this problem 3.5 years later on my own without asking anyone for help.
Im a separated with my husband for 12 yrs already for he committed bigamy. Im in a relationship with a muslim guy for 8 yrs now. We are happy together and we have alot of things in common. He loved me unconditionally and also treated my son as his own. His not perfect but his trying to be perfect in my eyes.My family accepted and love him. But me?never and I will never be accepted by his family because of their tradition. He is a husband material that every girl would dream for, in 2013 Im about to lose him because his family finds a wife for him. I was devastated I beg for him alot of times I cried in front of him not to leave me but he cannot disobey his family, he doesnt want and even he cried and we cried together he dont want to leave me and even he dont want to get married of that girl and he cant cancel the marriages because if he did they will curse him. I was in pain, and trigger the pain when he chatted to me that he’s on the way to visit the place where we used to go and stay, while in the way he was telling me he missed me and he missed the way with me but without his knowledge I was checking the GPS and it brings me to the direction of the girl where his family chosed for him to marry. I was in tears and helpless asking myself why he needs to lie And that moment Im totally blackout. Im out of my mind and I contemplated suicide. I hit my head on the wall untill I colapsed and when I gain consciousness, again I tried to kill myself by taking toxic drugs that leads me to emergency room. But for a reason I was still alive and just brought shame to myself. After that i took vacation from work and not heard anything from him. When I comeback he sent me message to say he refused to marry the girl. A glimpse of hope appear. After all those tears wasted and pain we suffered where together again. Where happy but most of the time im having depression remembering that problem, its like ghost that keeps haunting me, I pitied myself always and at the same time afraid that same things will happened again. Were having problem because of this and I know im the reason.I become manipulative and if things dont go my way i lose my temper and throw tantrums and not to talk to him for a week or a month. He tried to understand my attitude , all he could say was’why you need to treat me like this?’. And if his asking me like this I felt he’s trying to provoke me and the more i get angry and more irritated. I feel I can’t be happy like before. I dont know how we lasted so long with my attitude. Its mostly him working on it. Maybe im still on delimma that i might lost him again. And as I read this article It helps me how to deal with anger and control emotion. More power!
I can so relate to this article. I am angry and terrified at the sense of need and vulnerability that love awakens in me. I definitely know that I have experienced being loved, but I get stuck at a certain point. It’s like I desperately want love, but won’t let it past a particular barrier of smug, protective ego.
I cried finding this article. I have struggled with this for a long time. I have never told anyone about this feeling. It’s been my darkest secret. In Relationships in the first few months, I’m very on top of the moon, see the good in someone, cherish our time together, have such fun, am open and communicative and sexual. Then after like 4-6 months I feel bitter, resentful when my partner touches me, snappy, bossy, pushy. I feel angry when they leave the kitchen light on in the middle of the day, or mad that they didn’t take the chicken or the the freezer for dinner. I start picking them apart, finding all their flaws and focusing on them. How their socially awkward, how they don’t brush their hair well, how they have something in their teeth and don’t check before going in public, how they talk. The list goes on. I then start crushing or admiring other people from a far, the cute cashier, the guy at the gym I chatted to for a few mins with etc and start “imagining” he would never have these qualities my partner has that annoy me so much. It takes me away from the bitter feeling (which by the way, makes me feel so guilty and I’m always trying to force that emotion away). The oddest thing is that despite my past, I have done a lot of self love work on myself and I am pretty happy with who I am. I’ve done therapy on and off for many years, I’ve went and finished my BA, I join yoga classes, I meditate, I write and speak positive affirmations to my self a lot, I journal, I get myself out trying things I never would have tried before, I’m confident, I actually like myself. Yes I struggle with anxiety but I’ve learned a lot of coping mechanisms over the years. I’m so confused on why this happens to me EVERY relationship I’m in. I want love in my life but I feel like I am like my mother and destined to never have it.
I have the exact same problem.
just what I needed thankyou
well I love my girl so much yall!! we have been together for 5 years and I get so pissed at her for no reason and having a hard time controlling myn anger guys n girls please help me with this matter please
Hii..
I have some queries regarding my relationship
I want solutions of my questions about my relationship issues happened …
Please suggest me some sort of tips and solution to keep my relationship healthy n worthy i don’t want to lose him
And then there are many of us single men very Cursed when it comes to finding love.
For your best, he left you as this before, saying he need marry another girl, is just check your reaction and manipulate you. Then, let you suffering alone. Then , he returned back, just to say he is refused a girl. If he really loves you, he will refuse her immediately, and not let you feel alone as this.
This is psychological defense you have now. No matter how long time will pass, you will still feel wronged. Remember the all you did to yourself because of being under emotions because of him… For your best, you need leave him. Otherwise you will forever suffering in fear he leave you again.
I have given up on love and finding it. I reject those that are interested. I just wanna be left alone for good. All it does is get in the way.
Wow, Ashleigh. Reasoning this felt like I wrote it myself.
Best article,hope for postive conclusion regarding relationship status.
This really opened my eyes. I know realize why I’m always so angry with my doting senile grandmother. I also had a revelation that I will be alone my whole life because of my demeanor and the fact that every person I meet I will eventually loathe. Now I understand why.