I have often said that codependency cannot be cured but can be successfully managed. I have also stated on a few occasions that codependents are only one thought (or relationship) away from relapse back into codependency. It begs the question whether this is something that needs to be constantly managed over a long period. I believe it does and many people who are codependent will move along the continuum of co and counterdependency as time goes on. I recently wrote about my struggles and the rules I am bringing into my life and how that is working for me. The general gist was that it fully depends on me, my thoughts and my actions as to how I do with codependency.

I am generally very aware of my feelings and how they manifest themselves in behaviour. I tend to feel sorry for myself in conflict, play the victim and act passive aggressively to avoid conflict until one day I don’t and it all comes bursting out. I was never allowed to express myself as a child and was generally told what I was thinking. Times I did, didn’t usually end well for me. Over the last few years, I have been trying hard to define “who” I am, rather than “who I need to be”. It has been an exciting but scary process where I nearly lost people I hold dear to me but also realised that those people really like the “genuine” me that is emotionally honest and can set boundaries.

Still it has been a journey that started from a place of naivety. I firmly believed I had beaten codependency when I wrote the article below in 2014. How wrong I was. It was just lurking below the surface, waiting to resurface when it needed to. It did and remains part of my life (if I allow it). This for me is the key:

You can live with codependency if you are aware of how it affects you and you deal with it in your conscious mind.

So, for your reference, I have copied the article I wrote below. Some of it is fine while some proclaims a victory over codependency that wasn’t really there.

A Codependent Therapist

I was a codependent. It looks strange when I see that on paper. Codependency is not a recognised disorder nor does it make you ill in a true sense but my experiences and the experiences of countless others (many of my patients too) tell me that it can be just a devastating as a clear diagnosis. You see, codependency gives you a specific view of the world that ensures that you sacrifice your own needs and requirements for the benefit of others. On the other hand, I have written here before that codependency is also a form of control in that by sacrificing and creating an environment for the good of others ensures that the codependent will feel secure and loved. Sounds great in theory but due to the people that codependents tend to attach themselves to, that theory is often built on sand and like the proverbial house of cards, is sure to tumble at some point.

There are millions of articles and hundreds of books on codependency available and most look at the relationship between a codependent and their nemesis, the narcissist. While it may be true that codependents are more vulnerable to the emotionally unavailable distant people who often breeze through their lives, it is only part of the story, at least it was for me. For me, it was a lifestyle that resulted in time spent with the wrong people, self-centred people that knew all too well how to feed from my generosity.

I was a sacrificer, which meant that I gave constantly. This means myself, my ambitions, personal items, material things. I did this for a very good reason. To make people need me, like me or love me. While this was nice for the people around me as I was very accommodating, everyone had a high price to pay. For them dealing with my martyrdom attitude and the resentment it bred and me when the result of my sacrifice didn’t materialise into the things I wanted it to. It didn’t stop me trying again and a pattern emerged and was established. Not just with people but also with my work. I was a perfectionist and workaholic who drove himself to the brink of mental exhaustion with the demands I made of myself.

Where this started is clear… a dysfunctional relationship with one or both of my primary caregivers. I can see that today and of course, hindsight is 20-20 vision in such circumstances. I feel today that I am not responsible for the conditioning they gave me but I finally realised a few years ago that I was fully responsible for any change in that thinking. That I was finally going to put myself first. When I talk to codependent patients about this concept…putting your needs first….it seems alien and frightening at first. This is something they have not been used to or even thought was possible in some cases. Many, like me, accepted that was as good as it gets and often confused  what they were doing with love. It isn’t love if you put limits on it, right?

I started my road to recovery in the 90’s initially and after a significant setback, got back on track a few years ago. I started with other hand inner child therapy and rediscovered the part of me I had abandoned as a child. The part of me that was never developed…the creative, playful side that I was too afraid to let show. Through a process or rediscovery and reparenting, I put all the guilt and shame I was carrying into perspective and went through mourning the loss of my childhood. These were the key elements…loss, guilt, shame and low self esteem as a result. This led to the clear feeling that I had to do more than I needed to keep someone interested in me…I was prey for narcissists.

Apart from that one setback, I have never really looked back……