Great article to which I relate. It’s a difficult journey and harder than giving up addiction to a substance, because codependency is interwoven with our personality, thinking, and who we are, our learned beliefs, defenses, and behavior beginning in childhood. #Codependency underlies all addiction, and like all addictions, when we give up one “drug” (including relationships), there’s a tendency to replace it with another addiction, such as work, food, exercise — you name it. The only way through is to overcome shame, face our hidden emptiness, discover and love our true self, and find the courage to take action on its behalf. Since codependency is chronic and progressive, it’s considered, like all addiction, a “disease,” with discreet stages of healing and deterioration. See: “Codependency Addiction: Stages of Disease and Recovery.”

Darlene Lancer, LMFT

Author of Codependency for Dummies and Conquering Shame and Codependency: 8 Steps to Freeing the True You