Title: Are You in a Codependent Marriage? Symptoms, Challenges and Strategies – Family Life Share
Headings: Are You in a Codependent Marriage? Symptoms, Challenges and Strategies
Are You in a Codependent Marriage? Symptoms, Challenges and Strategies
So, what is a codependent marriage? Codependent marriages reflect at least one partner’s inability to set boundaries in a healthy way to foster a mutually fulfilling and balanced marriage. One person represents too much of a selfless “giver,” while the other exhibits more selfish “taker” tendencies – leading to an emotional imbalance within the relationship.
What Is a Codependent Marriage?
Codependent Marriage Signs
Codependent Behavior in Marriage
Codependent Marriage Problems
Codependency isn’t truly a relationship problem between two people. It’s a relationship problem one has with his or herself that affects his or her partner, becoming a challenge within the relationship as imbalance occurs and worsens over time.
Whichever is the case, communication becomes less honest, and the codependent often represses his or her feelings related to needs and desires in order to keep the peace.
Can a Codependent Marriage Be Saved?
Most codependent adults learned this behavior in childhood by having codependent relationship models (usually the parents or caretaker). So finding some healthier role models related to marriage is a helpful idea, whether that’s making new friends who are in a happy healthy marriage, reading books, documentaries, or any other way you can find.
Healing a Codependent Marriage
In fact, the benefits of identifying and working to improve the unhealthy codependent behavior can be hugely rewarding, including: higher level of self-esteem; capable of engaging in the marriage in a more deeply connected way; authenticity; building trust; and more.
Main Steps to Recovery
1. Abstinence
2. Awareness
3. Acceptance
4. Action
Additional Steps toward Healing – for the Codependent Person:
Additional Steps toward Healing – for both Partners in the Marriage
Related Questions
What causes co-dependency?
What is the difference between love and codependency?
What is the difference between enabling and codependency?
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Content: Alternatively, they might offer feedback about noticing when one of you wants some independence but remain too conflicted to actually separate in any way. In these cases, where you’re hearing feedback along these lines, you can add that to the list of ways you can tell if your marriage is one with a codependent dynamic. Codependent Behavior in Marriage
A codependent individual is typically the “giver” in the relationship. His or her behaviors revolve around being selfless to an extreme degree, and is largely based on low self-esteem and seeking outside sources to feel better about themselves. Here’s a list of traits commonly seen in codependent individuals, which affects their behavior and carries over into the marriage dynamics: Feeling guilty standing up for themselves
Fears about being alone or abandoned
A habit of doing more than is typically expected when helping someone else
Taking on the responsibility of “saving” someone else in need
A higher-than-average need for approval
Overly sensitive when others don’t recognize their efforts
Tending to “love” people they feel sorry for and who are in need
Needing to control others (without recognizing the controlling behavior for what it is)
Fearful of trusting both themselves and others
Exhibiting one or two of these traits doesn’t necessarily mean you are codependent. But if you exhibit more than half of these, chances are that your relationship leans toward being a codependent one. In that case, awareness, learning more about codependency, and taking action to improve behaviors are all key in shifting the balance toward more healthy interactions. Codependent Marriage Problems
Most problems in a codependent marriage are really more closely related to problems that doesn’t stem from the marriage itself at all, but rather “bleed” into the marriage. Codependency isn’t truly a relationship problem between two people.