This wasn't obvious to me before, but finishing this book by Robin Norwood connected all the dots provided by FDS and observing real-life relationships.

Co-addiction, in counseling circles, refers to a partner or family member enabling someone's addiction. They deny their addict's problem and how it's affecting them. They provide the addict with social cover and shield him from the repercussions of his behavior. They might even take full responsibility for changing the addict, which just leads to resistance and resentment from him. The scrotes we talk about are porn and sex addicts, and we observe the same behavior in pickmes who partner with them.

The book puts forward the idea that co-addicts have their own addiction: an addiction to the dysfunctional dynamic with an addict. The book covers many clients who've had at least one substance-abusing parent and points out that genetic factors are linked to a person's disposition to addiction. Some of them had other addictions such as eating disorders.

Although not all toxic relationships can be modeled by addiction, addictive toxic relationships aren't out of the norm. I knew a few battered women, and their stories related to a similar pattern of addiction. One was a well-adjusted woman with a happy childhood before she met him. But a year of his love-bombing made her "high" on the relationship she had with him. His later abuse put her through a withdrawal, which only made her try harder to return to that blissful love-bombing state. The other friend came from a dysfunctional background with an addicted father. A scrote got her by literally hooking her on drugs, then hooking her on the idea of him being her "protector" when he's the one abusing her. 

All of this made me realize that scrotes are on the same level as drug dealers. They will do anything to peddle their poison. Although drama-addicted pickmes will naturally gravitate to them, scrotes will also resort to hooking women through love-bombing. Anything that a scrote does to impair a woman's judgment and create dependency is love bombing whether they're hooking her with drugs, sex, validation, or attention. Women who've had a history with other addictions are more susceptible, but the majority of women should beware of this tactic. A sign of being love-bombed is being overwhelmed and obsessed just after meeting him for whatever reason. Those feelings are no accident because healthy well-adjusted men don't make women, predisposed to addiction or not, feel that way. A HVM's love is consistent, respectful, and has boundaries. "Love" with a scrote is volatile, demanding, and all-consuming.