Infidelity and Affairs

How to Identify Codependent Behavior in a Relationship

2025-03-06T07:23:42+00:00March 6th, 2025|Codependency, Couples Counseling, Featured, Infidelity and Affairs, Marriage Counseling, Relationship Issues|

When it comes to relationships, there are many different ways and reasons it can be unhealthy and struggling to flourish. One of those ways is through codependent behavior. Codependency Briefly Explained The term codependency describes a relationship in which the people involved are over-reliant on one another. This over-reliance may be mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, and it often leads to a person entering and remaining in destructive, one-sided, or abusive relationships. Codependent relationships can be found in all kinds of relationships, such as the parent-child relationship, between siblings, coworkers, or lovers. Often, codependent behavior is learned as a person watches and then goes on to imitate the behavior they see displayed in unhealthy relationships. That’s one reason there can be patterns of codependent behavior in families. A codependent person will often feel, for one reason or another, that it is their role to ‘save’ another person and to meet their needs, even if it is at the expense of their own needs and well-being. In a codependent relationship dynamic, there is a severe imbalance in meeting one another’s needs. The person who gives of themselves to meet the needs of another can lose their sense of who they are by defining themselves by the needs of the other person. Codependency often results from taking on too much responsibility for another person’s needs, and it goes beyond a healthy mutual dependence. Some Signs of Codependent Behavior in Relationships A codependent relationship is unhealthy at the root because it wraps one’s sense of self in meeting someone else’s needs. It also enables the other person to not resolve issues for themselves. It’s natural to want to move toward your loved one and help them meet their needs. Codependency, however, goes beyond this toward creating an unhealthy imbalance in the relationship. [...]

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Signs of Emotional Infidelity and How it Affects Relationships

2024-10-29T15:05:15+00:00April 11th, 2024|Couples Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling, Infidelity and Affairs, Marriage Counseling, Relationship Issues|

People do not just function as purely rational beings; we are also deeply emotional, and that is just the way that God made us. Our emotions alert us to what is going on inside of us, and they can direct our actions in significant ways. For instance, deep anger at an injustice can drive you to agitate for change. Similarly, deep affection for someone may move you to care for them in ways you would not with a stranger. All of us have a deep need to feel seen and heard. When we find ourselves being unappreciated or overlooked by others, that can cause frustration as well as feelings of low self-worth. To rectify this, one might look elsewhere for the validation and sense of being appreciated that they seek. This is one of many varied reasons why people engage in emotional infidelity. Defining emotional infidelity One way of defining emotional infidelity is that it is when a person in a committed romantic relationship forms a deep level of connection with another person. This connection approximates or has the same level of emotional intimacy as a romantic relationship. It may even exceed the depth and quality of the connection to the primary committed relationship. An emotional affair is a non-sexual relationship in which two people share their emotions, thoughts, aspirations, and support with each other in ways that cross a line. When an emotional affair happens, the third party often becomes the one that is approached to share problems, secrets, and dreams with. These are all things that are typically shared in a committed relationship, but the emotional affair often displaces the legitimate partner. Some signs of emotional infidelity The line, between just friends and something more, can be a tricky one to discern. Some purely platonic relationships are [...]

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