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Old 02-22-2011, 04:07 AM
  # 16 (permalink)  
JenT1968
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 1,149
The list of behaviours and feelings do seem all encompassing, and as if they are actually a list of normal caring things to do/feel.

and each one in isolation and moderation then most people feel them/do them at some point in their lives. It is not wrong or broken to do or say or feel any of these things.

Exhibiting a range of them together, to the extent that we are neglecting our own needs or trying to get our own needs met through influencing the behaviour of others isn't normal, or helpful or "healthy".

I developed co-dependent behaviours (I don't think it's an illlness/disease/disorder in any sense of the words) as a child, growing up, they were both presented to me as the way I should behave/feel/act and were an adaptive survival mechanism for being in a situation that I couldn't leave. Of course I believed that this is how everybody thinks/feels/acts, because that was how people in my imediate family worked and told me everyone else worked.

example: I have had a terrible day, I need to off-load, in my family, the way you do this is to ask someone else how their day was, they offload and then reciprocate, and I get my needs met. It always worked in the context of my family, and isn't particularly manipulative, but it isn't honest and crucially doesn't work with people who weren't raised with these rules, I could walk around all day asking people how their day was without ever getting an "and how was yours?" in return, getting increasingly frustrated that I could not get rid of my hurts and taking on all of theirs. The more effective and honest thing to say is: "I've had a hard day, do you mind if I tell you about it to get it off of my chest?",

not rude, not selfish, honest and direct, but I had no idea how to do that and worse thought that it was deeply selfish to try and get my own needs met honestly and directly.

This and many other similar things are co-dependent behaviours: I look like I'm really caring: because I am always helping others, but I am doing it because I want the reciprocation, which in my family of origin is how things worked (but secretly, admitting this was how you were operating would have been dreadful). I have a relative who feels everyone else's pain very deeply; very classically "empathic", and in fact taught us that it was selfish and uncaring not to feel the pain of others. Not to put too finer point on it: this is BS. Feeling someone else's pain is not kind or caring to the other person, it does nothing to lessen their burden, it just makes the situation all about her, intead of the person who is actually going through it.
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