A concept that individuals who live with a person having an alcohol (or other drug) dependence suffer themselves from difficulties of self-image and social independenceā ( Levinthal, 210).
The essence of codependency is the false belief (conscious or unconscious) that sacrificing oneself to another person in any form, will produce positive results. Manifestations of codependency include attempts to control another person's behavior. A codependent person is one who has let another person's behavior affect him or her, and is obsessed with controlling that person's behavior. A codependent is also someone who accepts responsibility for someone else's irresponsible behavior. A pattern of behavior in which those who are in a close relationship with an alcoholic/addict become in turn dependent upon that person's chemical dependency. The codependent builds his or her needs and life around the dependent person. The addict is addicted to the drug, but the codependent is addicted to the addict. The addict may also be codependent.
A set of maladaptive, compulsive behaviors learned by family members in order to survive in a family which is experiencing great emotional pain and stress associated with an alcoholic or drug addicted family member.
A popular term referring to all the effects that people who are dependent on alcohol or other substances have on those around them, including the attempts of those people to affect the dependent person. The term implies that codependence is a psychiatric disorder and hypothesizes that the family's actions tend to perpetuate (enable) the person's dependence. Empirical studies, however, support a stress and coping model for explanation of the family behavior.
A set of maladaptive, compulsive behaviors learned by family members to survive in an emotionally painful and stressful environment. These behaviors are passed on from generation to generation whether alcoholism is present or not.
Behavior in which family or friends unintentionally become accomplices to a substance abuser; reduces the chances that the alcoholic will recognize the problem.
suffering and/or dysfunction that is associ-ated with or results from focusing on the needs and behavior of others. A constellation of responses by significant others, particularly family, to being involved with the dependent.
when one person takes responsibility for fixing another person's substance abuse or addiction, and sacrifices personal well-being trying to change what he or she cannot control