What is Codependency?
Codependents are giving of themselves to others and compromise their ability to care for self. The act of giving more of themselves make codependents actually believe they are “loving more”. The concept of enabling is destabilizing to the codependent because the anxiety of feeling that a loved one will be not be ok is too hard to tolerate. Five Sisters Ranch programs focus on creating healthy boundaries, build self-esteem, learn how to say “no” without the guilt, and cultivate deep self-care.
Our clients include family members and spouses of active addicts of all kinds. We also get individuals who struggle in the workplace or in the home with codependency. The powerlessness over not being able to change, control, or help another person is destabilizing. Codependent people often experience an array of conflicting emotions such as anger, guilt, grief, fear and shame.
While at Five Sisters Ranch, our residents learn to put the focus on self and come to the terms of what is driving the codependency. Self care plans are created to assure continued healthy connection with others. With only having 6 residents at a time, our residents can expect to be seen, respected, and understood. And, most importantly, this small environment allows for any codependency within the group itself, be redirected.
Most Common Signs and Characteristics of Codependency:
- Feel most comfortable when they are giving
- Try to please others instead of themselves Have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility Feel anxiety, pity, and guilt when other people have a problem.
- Try to be all things to all people all the time Unable to say “no”
- Seek out chaos and then complain about it
- Get angry when somebody refuses their help
- Tend of have a self-esteem that is connected to “doing”
- Try to prove that they are good enough to be loved
- Try to be perfect, and expect others to be perfect
- Have self-blame and putting themselves down
- Feel victimized by the “selfishness” of others