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Emotional incest has been compared to actual incest because it similarly creates long-lasting effects on psychosocial development and into adulthood. Sometimes the targeted child is referred to as a “surrogate spouse,” due to parent-child enmeshment or a codependent parent-child ... Views: 212
Most relationships fail and nearly half of American adults are unmarried. Why can’t we find love and why don’t relationships last? Paradoxically, as much as we want love, we also fear it. Fear of not being loved is the greatest reason we don’t find love and sabotage it in our relationships. In ... Views: 1111
Just over five years ago my life was in complete turmoil. I was in a marriage with an out of control addict. I had lost practically all of my possessions due to my husband pawning anything valuable to support his habit, and we were on the verge of foreclosure. I felt emotionally and physically ... Views: 2441
Not all Emotional Abuse is obvious. In fact, behavior that belies Emotional Abuse often starts out feeling good. Have you ever met the charmer, the smooth talker? Everything you say and do he finds adorable. Narcissists are masters of charm and sweet talk. His doting and compliments feel good. ... Views: 2768
Narcissists’ entire personality is a defense to help them manage their hidden insecurity and inner turmoil. There are three secret behaviors they do that aren’t immediately obvious, but if you think about them, they would make sense to you and explain their manifest behavior.These behaviors stem ... Views: 288
Many people claim that they trust others until they have reason not to, but when you first meet someone, you don’t know anything about their integrity or past conduct, except what they tell you. Trustworthiness is proven over time by actions, not only by words. You can get hurt by believing what ... Views: 2585
You can make significant strides in overcoming codependency by developing new attitudes, skills, and behavior. But deeper recovery may involve healing trauma, usually that began in childhood. Trauma can be emotional, physical, or environmental, and can range from experiencing a fire to emotional ... Views: 1721
Most codependents experience abandonment trauma in childhood, which can take many forms ranging from overt abuse to covert neglect. Even subtle signs that one of our parents does not listen to our thoughts, feelings, or needs send a message that we’re not valued for who we are as an individual. ... Views: 238
People looking for the answers to overcoming their love addiction often ask two questions, “What does recovery really mean when it comes to breaking this problem”? ... and “What are key things I need to work on to successfully recover from love addiction”?
When we are new to recovery, we may ... Views: 3119
Is Codependency a Problem in Your Life and in Your Relationships?
Take the Quiz
To find out if codependency is a problem in your life, please answer yes or no to the following twenty questions:
Do you put others’ feelings, desires and needs before your own?
Are you drawn to ... Views: 1774
Pursuer-distancer relationships cause a lot of heartache, especially for a pursuer. Learn about the mind of a distancer to understand your own or your partner's behavior so you won't take it personally.As codependants, we usually gravitate toward insecure relationships where we're a distancer or ... Views: 271
Codependency robs us of a self and self-love. We’ve learned to conceal who we really are, because we grew up pleasing, rebelling against, or withdrawing from dysfunctional parents. This sets us up for trauma. As adults, even if we’re successful in some areas, our emotional life isn’t easy. ... Views: 1313
As human beings, we live our lives with certain expectations. For emotionally healthy individuals, expectations are more likely to be realistic and rational -- based on reality.
For individuals whose emotional health is less-than healthy, expectations are often unrealistic and impractical – ... Views: 4534
(Note: Bad Boys is a metaphor for toxic partners. Just flip the pronoun to female depending on your relationship).
Bad Boys are everywhere. The corporate office, the gym, your neighborhood, a charity gala or the backyard bbq. Before they end up in your heart and in your bed, it will be in ... Views: 1572
People-pleasers are at risk in the domains of finance, love, sex, family, and friendship.
How is it that we can manage a successful business but still have a failed personal life? Extending a hand to others after taking care of yourself is how we make the world a better place for our children ... Views: 1158
Many of ''US" have been traversing through expansion, contraction, purging, refining and feel at times that we are jumping from cliffs or being pushed off them...This has been a period where we are being asked to realign with "self". Many of ''US'' are traversing through old stories, beliefs and ... Views: 2021
So your loved one finally accepts treatment. A wave of relief washes over the family. There is a glimmer of hope for a future free of the chaos. But the battle isn't over. Treatment is just the beginning. There is no cure for addiction. a good treatment program teaches the addict how to avoid ... Views: 1548
A trauma bond is an attachment to an abuser in a relationship with a cyclical pattern of abuse. Patrick Carnes, Ph.D., coined the term in 1997. He defined it as an adaptive, dysfunctional attachment occurring in the presence of danger, shame, or exploitation in order to survive. It is a trauma ... Views: 678
Generational trauma is a form of trauma passed down to subsequent generations through environmental factors such as psychological transference and attachment behavior according to attachment theory. The psychological impact of a traumatic event, such as historical mistreatment, cultural ... Views: 52
Narcissists don’t really love themselves. Actually, they’re driven by shame. It’s the idealized image of themselves, which they convince themselves they embody, that they admire. But deep down, narcissists feel the gap between the façade they show the world and their shame-based self. They work ... Views: 2509
Sometimes, the breakup is initiated by the long-suffering spouse or intimate partner of the narcissist or psychopath. As she develops and matures, gaining in self-confidence and a modicum of self-esteem (ironically, at the narcissist’s behest in his capacity as her “guru” and “father figure”), ... Views: 18073
From the moment you give birth, an innate force within secures a powerful and concentrated intent at the deepest level to protect your precious child, protect them from harm. As a parent, you accept this role with reverence as it carries the highest priority.
Holding your child carefully, ... Views: 1495
Where There Is a Will There Is A Way
The truth is that we are living in our physical bodies and have “this” one life to live. We each can only take it one day at a time! Of course, I know that this is nothing new to you. In fact, its a philosophy you’ve heard dozens of times before; ... Views: 1287
Sometimes there are hardships in intimate relationships. These hardships often show up as:
-Lack of desire in your sex life.
-Wishing your partner would do just the right thing to satisfy you.
-Feeling sad when the sex isn’t what you expected.
-Believing that your sex drive ‘stops’ after ... Views: 2491
To run a business successfully embracing a new challenge every day is. It indicates exciting to be on the way out to overcome obstacles while keeping ahead of their competitors. Every day is a new plan and new strategies, and objectives must be met with. But some key aspects of running a ... Views: 1366
One of the key contributing factor of Procrastination – Indolence
First of all, let’s understand what indolence is. It simply means laziness or disinclined to complete a task or activity, for instance, when you want to lose weight by doing routine exercise, you will delay this task by finding ... Views: 3793
Most everyone wants to fall in love, especially codependents. To us, love is perhaps the highest ideal, and relationships give our lives meaning and purpose. They enliven and motivate us. A partner provides a companion when we have difficulty initiating action on our own. Being loved also ... Views: 1878
Women and Boundaries
Women who are we and what do we really want? In earlier generations, women were not the powerful, independent, “I can do anything!” wonder women that they are today. When I wanted to take mechanical drawing in high school in the 50’s, it had to be approved by ... Views: 1699
The entangled threads of my own thoughts tug at notions of women and leadership; women and breast cancer; the need women seem to have to apologize when not agreeing or finding something lacking; food and its stranglehold on women and their bodies; and last, but most definitely not least, women ... Views: 1193
Worry Warts Anonymous
By Patricia Potts
Okay, I admit it. Worrying comes natural for me. In fact I will actually admit that at times I am addicted. When I became a parent then a grandparent my worrying accelerated. When my little ones lay cuddled in the warmth of blankets. I ... Views: 2237
Many victims of narcissists are firmly convinced that they have been "chosen" by their abusers because of their capacity to empathize, their innate sensitivity, compassion, and their ability to love and care. Indeed, these qualities tend to attract exploitative psychopathic predators who ... Views: 5418
How often have you heard the following phrases coupled with the most horrific physical, verbal, and psychological abuse: "It's all your fault, you made me do it" or "look what you made me do!"
Abusers have alloplastic defenses and an external locus of control. This means that they tend to ... Views: 2999
Self-responsibility both reflects and generates self-esteem. People with high self-esteem feel that they are in charge of their lives. They have a sense of agency and self-efficacy. They take responsibility for their feelings, actions, and lives. It also means that you take responsibility for ... Views: 2962
Tracy, a 30 year old love addict shares her story of a relationship break up:
"When he said it was over, I stopped breathing. I could not gather my thoughts. I felt like it wasn't happening, but it was. It was surreal. My stomach turned up side down, my mouth was dry, I was sweating, my ... Views: 8158
Love
In part four of our own more practical Journey to Awakening we discuss Love. On her journey Elizabeth Gilbert finds love in Bali. If you read the book you know that Gilbert’s journey was about finding and defining herself. Until then Gilbert, like many of us, lost herself in her ... Views: 1750
The Human Condition
Volume 1, Part 01
Have you ever wondered what is the platform for our one and only human experience? I have, for I once destroyed 99.9 percent of my human experience. With one tenth of my experience left, I took the time to learn how to learn from my insecurities. I ... Views: 1657
The monk just finished clearing and purifying his mind with meditation, and decided to have a glorious walk with one of his students. On the walk the student began to spew arrogance, pride, vulgarity, and vanity. The monk quietly said,”please don’t wipe your dirty feet on my mind.”
When ... Views: 3112
Emptiness is a common feeling, and there are distinct types of emptiness, but it’s psychological emptiness that underlies codependency and addiction. Whereas existential emptiness is concerned with your relationship to life, psychological emptiness deals with your relationship to yourself. It’s ... Views: 2228
The majority of the couples that want to improve their relationship identify that communication is an issue for them. They share how they can’t see eye-to-eye, convey their feelings and perspective, or understand each other. They report they end up fighting every time they try to address ... Views: 1788
In the 'Love Addict in Love Addiction', I write a lot about the five core issues which is a large part of our pain and dysfunction in addictive relationships—one of these core issues of love addicts are Impaired Boundaries.
Love addicts need boundaries. We need to set limits on what we shall ... Views: 2738
Love Addiction is an unhealthy obsessive and dysfuntional dependency to another person in relationships. Love Addiction is finally being recognized as a serious problem and a serious addiction in the media and mental health professionals. Some have difficulty believing "love" can become an ... Views: 3110
If you're a man- you're here for a reason. Maybe you're here because you're having relationship difficulties- or you are dealing with a relationship loss. And/or you identify yourself as having characteristics in love addiction- - YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Many mental health care professionals make ... Views: 2542
1- Understand the Dynamics of Love Addiction & Intricacies of Love Addicted Relationships
A very important first step in recovery is to gain clarity into the intricacies of love addiction, the love addict, avoidant partner, and love addicted relationship dynamics.
Understanding your ... Views: 2452
Shame is so painful to the psyche that most people will do anything to avoid it – even though it’s a natural emotion that everyone has. It’s a physiologic response of the autonomic nervous system. You might blush, have a rapid heartbeat, break into a sweat, freeze, hang your head, slump your ... Views: 3234
Did you ever notice that we often do or don't do things because we are worried about what others will think? It's kind of silly if you think about it, but I know so many of us are guilty of it! It takes a lot of work and self-awareness to really start to change that.
So I am giving you the ... Views: 1922
My next several blog posts are all related to the same topic. They deal with something that happened to me in July of 1988. My Dad had died the previous Thanksgiving, and I was still in the grief process over that loss. As well, I was still involved with a 12 step program for people who had ... Views: 1942
Regardless of our chosen field, or the manner in which we use your gifts, most of us have come across people in our lives who absolutely refuse to take responsibility for their actions, their situations, their own lives. It could be a family member, a dear friend, a co-worker, even a spouse. ... Views: 1811
From the beginning of our childhood- we are planted with seeds in our conscious. These seeds are the messages on love, romance, and relationships love addicts (and all of society) have been consistently bombarded with- that feed the DELUSION of addictive relationships. These fabricated seeds are ... Views: 2219
Using a practical definition, addiction is characterized by the repeated, compulsive seeking or use of a substance, behavior, or activity to reach euphoric states in the brain, despite negative consequences (harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life). ... Views: 1904
Your relationship broke up and you are heart broken. What should you do now to heal the hurt and move on with your life?
First, examine what Not to do. These are things that will make your situation worse.
1. Don't try to get back together. There must be some very strong reasons why you ... Views: 2657