Codependency - A Definition

A highly contagious, inherited, infectious, insidious disease; an identity crisis which propels us into the search for some person, place or thing to make us happy and fulfill our needs, to provide us with a sense of self and to nurture our abandoned Inner Child. In this search, we relinquish our own power and become addicted to the source of our temporary satisfaction. This frequently leads to our own addictions which are used to numb our pain. We typically become our own best critic and remain in the bondage of old scripts. We continue to search for that love and nurturing which was our birthright, unaware that now we are the primary one who must learn to love, to nurture, and to reparent ourself. This we cannot do alone. (Shirley Ann Sparr, LCSW & Andrew Sparber, RN, MS, CS)