“ Anything less than a year of dating is too short," advises Arterburn. "Desperate daters want to rush the process, trying to lock you in quickly with expensive gifts or cheap sex so you will have great difficulty backing away.

"The desperate dater may ‘kidnap’ you into marriage with guilt, shame, responsibility or anything that attaches you to them for life. They have a great knack for saying everything you want to hear and doing everything you want to do. The chronologically desperate can’t wait because they think time is running out and the window of opportunity may close any minute. The financially desperate are in the midst of economic turmoil and are looking for the financial fix in a mate.

"Then there is the emotionally desperate person who believes the only cure for their depression or acute anxiety is a walk down the aisle with you. If you are attracted to a desperate person, it is much less painful to acquire a rescue dog from the local shelter than it is to spend a lifetime with someone you thought you would be able to fix, heal or cure and someone who expected you to do it.”