Are you “codependent”?
Have you let other people’s behavior deeply affect you? Do you feel compelled to control others?
As Melody Beatty describes in her classic book Codependency No More, you are a codependent if you recognize yourself here:
“…the obsessing, the controlling, the obsessive ‘helping’, caretaking, low self-worth bordering on self-hatred, self-repression, abundance of anger and guilt, peculiar dependency on peculiar people, attraction to and tolerance of the bizarre, other-centeredness that results in abandonment of self, communication problems, intimacy problems, and an ongoing whirlwind trip through the five-stage grief process.” (p.36)
What if you could learn to accept responsibility for yourself and allow others’ to, in turn, experience responsibility for themselves? It is, after all, meant to be – we grow from experiencing our world, our environment. We find ourselves that way.
Try Mindfulness – It can help you learn to let go – to recognize what you can and cannot control.