Basically, it is a Life Pattern that you developed to protect yourself from a person who became a major stressor in your life. It is a fight or flight response which worked for a while, but as an adult, has become debilitating. The problem is that you cannot stop using that survival behavior, because it is the only way you know how to navigate through life.

It happens when a significant other’s behavior becomes threatening in some way to you. It might have occurred through abuse, abandonment, or neglect due to a parent either being preoccupied with their own issues or their lack of parenting skills. The bottom line is that your life started revolving around how to protect yourself from the effects of other people’s issues. In an attempt to control the person causing your stress, your life became OUTERDIRECTED, always adapting and reacting to the stressor, never having the freedom to simply meet your own wants and needs apart from them.

Your boundaries can disappear, and your life become so enmeshed with another that you don’t know where they end and you begin. Codependency manifests itself in a variety of ways, from flight responses such as denial, disassociation, depression, substance abuse, repression and withdrawal, to fight responses such as anger, identifying with a persecutor, reactive and re-enacting behavior. Millions of people struggle with codependency as the number of dysfunctional families grows and they pass on their codependent coping mechanisms to the next generation.

However, the Codependency can STOP WITH YOU. Unlike other issues, Codependency doesn’t have to take years to heal. Once you understand the issues, where they came from, and how God intended you to be, you can be free. Learn more by joining this site for FREE.