Mini Series 8 - Co-dependency - We've all got it

Busting Addiction and Its Myths

Whether we like it or not, we are all susceptible to co-dependency - the need to control another person in our life.
In this podcast, we offer the following insights on the various aspects of co-dependency, especially important when addressing what happens in families who are experiencing addiction at home.
Co-dependency - We've all got it
Every person on earth has at least some form of co-dependency, just as everyone experiences anxiety.
There are some who worry from time to time, and there are others who live in an endless state of worry, what professionals call anxiety syndrome. A whole class of drugs has developed around this one symptom.
The same goes for co-dependency. Who doesn't want their spouse or child to be neater at home, and try to “get" them to do what they think is right? This desire can be placed on a continuum from mild to bothersome to severe. When the desire to control becomes severe, it is classified by psychiatry as co-dependency; it becomes an addiction in and of itself.
We see the most severe form of this phenomenon in families where there is addiction at home. What starts as the "desire" or "want" to have the other person stop or control his or her drinking or using drugs in the early stages ultimately manifests itself as an all-consuming obsession that sucks all the oxygen from the room.
The co-dependent person - the person close to the addict or alcoholic - exhibits many symptoms of unhealthy behaviour, the primary one being feeling overly responsible for the other's feelings, actions, decisions, and overall well-being. They have confused their own agenda with that of their loved one. In fact, they have no agenda of their own anymore, not since they became unwitting partners in addiction.
So, even though we all have it in various forms, co-dependency will take over even the most "normal" families if they are not alert to its harmful potential. And most families are not, given their inclination to deny the very existence of addiction in their own family.