National Codependency Awareness Month – January 2025

History of National Codependency Awareness Month

According to Webster’s dictionary, codependency is a psychological condition or a relationship where one feels the need to be dependent on or controlled by another. However, it’s not a mental illness, but a perception of life that is based on one’s childhood. Clinical literature states codependency develops when a child is exposed to a dysfunctional family, where they are exposed to abuse and neglect by the parents. While in sociology, codependency is a concept that looks at imbalanced and unequal relationships. This is where the codependent individual tries to make up for the self-destructive tendencies of the others by suppressing their own needs. Self-sacrifice and ignoring one’s own feelings and emotions are key to such a partnership. Because the codependent person is continually looking for acceptance, any criticism sends them into a tailspin. Codependent relationships can also develop between lovers, friends, siblings, parents, coworkers, and others.

Since codependents tend to put others on a high pedestal and ignore themselves, they have low self-esteem and a complex personality where their own needs come last. Such relationships can be extremely toxic, hence, they need to be identified and the codependent person must receive professional help. “Codependency is a circular relationship in which one person requires the other, who in turn needs to be needed,” explains Dr. Exelberg. Unless they are required by — and making sacrifices for — the enabler, also known as ‘the taker,’ the codependent person, sometimes known as ‘the provider,’ feels useless.
When psychologists started investigating family dynamics and how they affect one’s mental health in the 1940s and 1950s, they discovered the devastating effects of codependency.