CO-DEPENDENCY
Co-dependency is a set of maladaptive, compulsive behaviours learned by family members to survive in a family that is experiencing great emotional pain and stress.
It is a dependency on people; on their moods, behaviours, sickness or well-being, and their love.
Co-Dependents look strong but feel helpless. They appear controlling but are controlled themselves.
Co-Dependency is a learned behaviour that can be passed down from one generation to another.
It is an emotional and behavioural condition that affects an individual’s ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. It is also known as “relationship addiction” because people with codependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive, and/or abusive.
The disorder was first identified about ten years ago as the result of years of studying interpersonal relationships in families of alcoholics. Co-dependent behaviour is learned by watching and imitating other family members who display this type of behaviour.
WHERE DOES CO-DEPENDENCY COME FROM?
RELATIONSHIP ADDICTION
They have no sense of self or feel they are of value and so they must continually be in an intimate relationship to feel that “high” much like an alcoholic with liquor.
When in a relationship they typically turn into a chameleon being whatever that person needs them to gain acceptance.
VALUE
Values are placed on what people think of them, self-explanatory. They will apologize for things they cannot control; a co-dependent's goal is to figure out what a person wants and to give it to them.
They develop remarkable abilities when it comes to reading people’s wants and needs so that they can project that image of what the person desires.
INDISPENSABLE
Co-dependents really feel that people would not want them around if they were not giving something so their goal is to make themselves indispensable.
Usually they take the approach of “if I do this for you, then you can’t get rid of me”, giving gifts, doing favours or care taking in one form or another.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
A question that you will often hear from a co-dependent. They do not believe or trust enough in their own perceptions and so must go to many other sources to have their opinion validated.
If it is not, then they will change to the opinion of whoever is around them at the time hoping that the agreement will in fact make a positive impression on the other person.
LACK OF BOUNDARIES
As part in parcel with their chameleon behaviour, co-dependents have a habit of lacking emotional boundaries.
They will often feel whatever the person around them is feeling.
With a co- dependent, it is as if the person does not know where they end and the other begins.
CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
Co-dependents are self-centered but in a much unique way. If there is a problem, they will bring it back to them as if it is their fault.
They are often seen meddling in other people’s business this again harkens back to their lack of boundaries.
They like to create dramas where they are the hero and can come to the rescue.
They come from the belief that they can and should be able to fix any issue which arises.
EMOTIONAL WALLS
Due to a co-dependent’s need to help and take care of others they neglect themselves, which in turn causes them to become out of touch with their own feelings.
When a feeling does emerge, it is often in an intense and explosive way that the people around them will feel. They will then go about trying to “fix” the damage done and rebuild their image.
They have become so out of touch with their feelings that oftentimes they cannot determine their own wants and needs when left to their own devices.
LYING
Most people lie to get themselves out of trouble and a co-dependent is not much different. They lie to others to get themselves out of uncomfortable situations, or out of confrontations, they also lie to themselves when it comes to their feelings.
The lies that a co-dependent will tell us are “with our best interests in mind” they are the lies that they tell to keep us from “being hurt”.
CONTROL & JUDGMENT
This condition appears to run in different degrees, whereby the intensity of symptoms is on a spectrum of severity, as opposed to an all or nothing scale.
Please note that only a qualified professional can make a diagnosis of co-dependency; not everyone experiencing these symptoms suffers from co-dependency.
FEAR OF ABANDONMENT
The co-dependent personality needs to be involved in every aspect of their significant other’s life.
If they are not, the co-dependent perceives it as abandonment.
WHAT IS ENMESHMENT?
A description of a relationship between two or more people in which personal boundaries are permeable and unclear. This often happens on an emotional level in which two people “feel” each other's emotions, or when one person becomes emotionally escalated and the other family member does as well.
WHO DOES CO-DEPENDENCY AFFECT?
Co-dependency often affects a spouse, a parent, sibling, friend, or co-worker of a person afflicted with alcohol or drug dependence. Originally, co-dependent was a term used to describe partners in chemical dependency, persons living with, or in a relationship with an addicted person.
Similar patterns have been seen in people in relationships with chronically or mentally ill individuals. Today, however, the term has broadened to describe any co-dependent person from any dysfunctional family.
WHAT IS A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY AND HOW DOES IT LEAD TO CO-DEPENDENCY?
A dysfunctional family is one in which members suffer from fear, anger, pain, or shame that is ignored or denied.
Underlying problems may include any of the following:
An addiction by a family member to drugs, alcohol, relationships, work, food, sex, or gambling.
The existence of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.
The presence of a family member suffering from a chronic mental or physical illness.
Dysfunctional families do not acknowledge that problems exist. As a result, family members learn to repress emotions and disregard their own needs.
They become “survivors”.
They develop behaviours that help them deny, ignore, or avoid difficult emotions.
They detach themselves.
They don’t talk.
They don’t touch.
They don’t confront.
They don’t feel.
They don’t trust.
The identity and emotional development of the members of a dysfunctional family are often inhibited attention and energy focused on the family member who is ill or addicted.
The co-dependent person typically sacrifices his or her needs to take care of a person who is sick. When co-dependents place other people’s health, welfare and safety before their own, they can lose contact with their own needs, desires, and sense of self.
ACTIONS OF A CO-DEPENDENT
Co-dependents have low self-esteem and look for anything outside of themselves to make them feel better. They find it hard to “be themselves.” Some try to feel better through alcohol, drugs or nicotine - and become addicted. Others may develop compulsive behaviours like workaholism, gambling, or indiscriminate sexual activity.
They have good intentions. They try to take care of a person who is having trouble, but the care-taking becomes compulsive and defeating. Co-dependents often take on a martyr’s role and become “benefactors” to an individual in need. A wife may cover for her alcoholic husband; a mother may make excuses for a truant child; or a father may “pull some strings” to keep his child from suffering the consequences of delinquent behaviour.
The problem is that these repeated rescue attempts allow the needy individual to continue a destructive course and to become even more dependent on the unhealthy care-taking of the “benefactor.”
As this reliance increases, the co-dependent develops a sense of reward and satisfaction from “being needed.” When the care-taking becomes compulsive, the co-dependent feels choice less and helpless in the relationship but is unable to break away from the cycle of behaviour that causes it.
Co-dependents view themselves as victims and are attracted to that same weakness in the love and friendship relationships.
CO-DEPENDENT PERSONALITY
When working with families facilitating interventions and case management, it is important to remember that using the terms of co-dependency language can be very triggering for families and clients. It is very clear that co-dependency is part of the cycle of addiction within most family systems.
Co-dependence is the pain in adulthood that comes from being wounded in childhood and leads to a high probability of relationship problems and addictive/compulsive behaviour.
It is a combination of immature thinking; feeling and behaving that generate an aversive relationship with the self (self-loathing), which the co-dependent individual acts out through self-destructive, unduly self-sacrificial behaviour.”
Co-dependents have low self-esteem and look for anything outside of themselves to make them feel better. They find it hard to “be themselves.” Some try to feel better through alcohol, drugs or nicotine - and become addicted. Others may develop compulsive behaviours like workaholism, gambling, or indiscriminate sexual activity.
It is more important to help family members and clients self-identify their co-dependent behaviours by looking at their family history and attachment trauma.
There are many reasons for family members that are attached to co-dependency and enabling behaviours that may be a deeper trauma attachment or loss that increases addiction behaviours.
It is vital to start the process of professional support services to start the treatment of untreated family members.
One thing that the co-dependent craves is control, this disease arises from deep-seated fear. They build an illusion around themselves and try to control all the variables to keep that illusion in place. When they begin to realize their lack of control, it can cause the co-dependent to lash out and become more judgmental. It is a disease.
At Liberty, we can help you make sense of it all. Recovery is a journey of self-discovery, rather than a destination.
THE PATH TO FREEDOM BEGINS HERE
Our team is just a call or click away to get you the assistance you need to help your loved one, or yourself.