Codependency Essay

Substance disorders affects all social, educational, cultural, and age groups. Substance abuse research often focusses on the abuser and the family as a whole but not how it affects their spouse. United States misuse is linked to approximately 590,000 deaths and is responsible for injury or illness to almost 40 million individuals every year. (Cox, R., Ketner, J. & Blow, A. 2013). The consequences resulted from this disorder, are not only related to the substance abusers, but also have a great influence on their behavior and other layers of their life, especially their wives (Salehyan, Bigdeli, & Hashemian 2011). When the husband or boyfriend has an addiction the wife takes on responsibilities of her spouse which causes an increase in stress. Marriage is generally described as a protective factor against substance use. The concept of codependency was developed to explain what happens to the spouse of a substance abuser.

The concept of codependency is a controversial subject in the counseling profession, due to there being several different definitions of codependency. Clinician’s that primarily work with substance abusers believe that codependency is a valid diagnosis. Codependency appeared in the treatment scene in the seventies and was a term that developed by Alcoholic Anonymous. Codependency involves a habitual system of thinking, feelings, and behaving toward ourselves and others that can cause us pain (Beattie, M.). A spouse uses coping skills such as pleading, threatening, arguing, avoiding, withdrawing sexually, being indulgent, taking control or responsibilities, seeking outside help and taking steps towards separation. There is an increasing evidence to suggest that maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving ...

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...re tested are that codependency exists independently of chemical dependency and that codependent people tend to be more depressed that non-codependent. The purpose of the study was to explore systematically the nature of codependency by conceptualizing it as a disorder that exists independently of chemical dependency. The participants were 115 undergraduate students from St. Louis University that were enrolled in a psychology class. All of the participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Codependency Inventory and the Significant Others’ Drug Use Survey. Results show that a significant correlation between depression and having a significant other likely to be chemically dependent was observed. This study helps to show of the symptoms that those with codependency experience. The study does not have a lot of relevance towards the current study.