Addiction is a powerful disease that affects millions of Americans every day. Addiction becomes even worse when it is built around a relationship. Relationships make it more difficult to deal with and treat addiction, and the worst types of relationships for someone suffering from addiction are codependent relationships. Many factors affect how someone behaves when addicted. A codependent relationship can hide or reinforce many of these behaviors, making getting the proper treatment much more difficult for both parties involved. It is crucial to know the signs of a codependent relationship, so you know when to get help.
See Purpose is dedicated to getting our clients the help they need for drug addiction. Part of that includes giving clients and their loved ones the information they need to deal with addiction and its causes. In this post, we will be examining codependent relationships. We will discuss codependent relationships, the symptoms, signs, and causes of a codependent relationship, and how to find treatment for a codependent relationship in Indiana.
What is a Codependent Relationship?
A codependent relationship is a mentally and emotionally unhealthy relationship in which one person serves as the caretaker of another, and the other person is unable to lead a normal existence without the other person’s care. This is typically a bad situation for both parties as the caretaker will spend all of their time caring for and often enabling the other party’s behavior while neglecting their own needs and mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
The dependent party develops into a pattern of behavior where they rely solely on the other person and cannot function without them. The reason this creates a codependent relationship is that both parties exist for the sake of the other, and neither is healthy.
In the case of addiction, codependency is amplified because the person addicted is even more reliant on the other party, and the other party will either fail to acknowledge or actively enable the addiction. This is often done out of love or concern for the person addicted, but it can make getting the proper treatment and recovering from addiction very difficult.
Signs of a Codependent Relationship
There are essentially two sets of symptoms in a codependent relationship, one for the dependent and one for the dependee. Understanding both will make it easier to recognize a codependent relationship and how best to deal with it so that the person suffering from addiction can get the help they need.
For the dependent, symptoms can include:
- Feelings of low self-worth or emptiness.
- Constantly seeking the attention or approval of other people.
- Unexplained anger or resentment.
- A sense of entitlement or expectation of the dependee in particular.
- Comparing oneself and their situation to other people.
For the dependee, symptoms include:
- Being overly busy.
- Lack of self-care.
- Having to feel needed much of the time.
- Inability to accept help from others.
- Feeling of martyrdom or self-sacrifice.
In a sense, they feel like they must do for the dependent to feel complete. This is why, much of the time, the dependee will enable the behavior of the dependent in order to feel needed.
What Are the Causes of a Codependent Relationship?
A codependent relationship is the result of neither party being able to care for themselves fully. It can result from various factors, but the overarching cause is that neither party can be self-sufficient. One party must always be needed, and the other always needs someone else. This problem is magnified in the case of addiction because addiction makes it so that a person neglects their own needs in favor of abusing a substance, creating an ideal situation for a codependent relationship.
Finding Treatment for a Codependent Relationship in Indiana
The first step to finding treatment for a codependent relationship is to realize that there is a problem. Once the problem has been identified, you can identify the root cause of the problem. In the case of addiction, the next step is to get help at a licensed treatment facility like ours here at See Purpose.
We are the premiere Indiana drug addiction treatment facility. We offer inpatient treatment at our calming and relaxing facility surrounded by kind and caring staff. We give each client the personal attention they need to deal with their unique situation. Once treatment is complete, we provide continued care through aftercare services so that clients can continue their path of recovery and begin to forge normal healthy relationships free of the struggles of addiction.
Contact See Purpose today if you or someone you know is in a codependent relationship because of addiction.
