What does the term “codependent” mean?
Codependency involves a habitual system of unhealthy or unbalanced thinking, feeling, and behaving toward oneself and others. Codependency often results in enabling destructive behaviors in others (e.g. behaviors consistent with addictions) that likewise cause the codependent much pain as well. Codependent behaviors or habits are self-destructive. Some examples of codependent behavior are as follows: obsessing, controlling, obsessive “helping” (or enabling), unhealthy caretaking, low self-worth (sometimes bordering on self-hatred), self-repression, abundance of anger and guilt, a sometimes peculiar dependency on destructive people, attraction to and tolerance for unhealthy relationships and situations (e.g. verbal or physical abuse), other-centeredness that results in abandonment of self, communication problems, intimacy problems, etc.
