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Difference between codependency and just being a good, caring person

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banano

Difference between codependency...

When codependents die, they see someone else's life flash before them!
-Timmen Cermak

How can you tell the difference between codependency and just being a good, caring person? Probably by your degree of involvement and the amount of pain you feel. Examples of codependency: If you only think and talk about someone else's problem, have a long history of unsuccessful efforts to rescue him/her or change his/her behavior, and always feel "I have to do something" to help a particular person, you are codependent and need to detach. If you have been terribly upset for months with a person's problems (or with a series of people with similar problems) and are thinking "I can't go on living like this" but you do, you are codependent and need to detach. If your lover has drained you of all your assets or your spouse has had repeated affairs or abandons you while "working at the office," and you are "going out of your mind" trying to hold on to him/her, you are codependent and need to detach. If you react with horror to the suggestion that you get out of this mess which is destroying your life, saying "Oh, my God, I couldn't do that; I care too much," you are codependent and need to detach.

www.mentalhelp.net/psyhel...chap8g.htm