Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

by Melody Beattie

In my group, I saw people who felt responsible for the entire world, but they refused to take responsibility for leading and living their own lives.

I saw people give until they were angry, exhausted, and emptied of everything.

There was no peace between his relapses; only unexpressed anger and fear about when it would happen again.

codependency is “an emotional, psychological, and behavioral condition that develops as a result of an individual’s prolonged exposure to, and practice of, a set of oppressive rules—rules which prevent the open expression of feeling as well as the direct discussion of personal and interpersonal problems.”

A codependent person is one who has let another person’s behavior affect them and who is obsessed with controlling that other person’s behavior.