It is always nice to care for and help someone whenever they need a helping hand. There are some people who spend time only helping others instead of helping themselves called codependency. Codependency is sacrificing your own personal needs to meet the needs of other, causing you to feel passive, shameful, insecure, and have low self-worth. Those with codependency should seek psychotherapy to learn that they are important too.
People with codependency behaviors are always people pleasing and are always caring and rescuing other people. This could have started as early as childhood when a child could have always taken care of their parents such as if they were addicts or depressed but yet their parents did not take care of their child, making caretaking all they know. They are normally afraid of being alone or not having an intimate partner. Even though they choose to take care of people, they also tend to resent the people they take care of and find them needy. They feel trapped as a caretaker despite how important people make them feel and even if they tell people they enjoy it, deep down they feel very unhappy. Codependent people experience chronic anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.
Psychotherapy, family therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be very useful in teaching those with codependency to take care of themselves and establish boundaries with other people. Therapy can help make codependents understand why they overcompensate, feel the need to fulfill everyone else’s needs but their own, and why they put themselves last. Therapists can teach their patients how to love themselves for their overall wellbeing.
Codependents can also learn about improving their self-care as they may not know how to and tend to push their needs to the side for others. They can set limits of how far to go to help someone to take responsibility of their own lives and use their time and energy taking care of themselves. Codependents can learn not to fix everything, and to find other ways to help out like volunteering every once in awhile instead of through personal relationships. Codependents can bring out their suppressed emotions to their therapists. There are also 12 Step programs that codependents can go to like Co-Dependents Anonymous. It is crucial that while it is nice to think of others and be there for other people that you have yourself to think about as well.
Located in downtown Midland, The Springboard Center’s mission is to offer programs and services to treat alcohol and drug addiction treatment using an evidence based curriculum, 12 step programs, diet, nutrition, exercise, emotional, mental and spiritual development for a long recovery. For more information, please call us at 432-620-0255 as we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
