Codependent Relationships

by Heidi Rain | Apr 27, 2022 | codependency

Codependent Relationship Clinger and Withholder

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I’m mot codependency, but my partner is.”

Codependent is “co”, and we are usually two sides of the same coin, on opposite ends of the spectrum and that is how we attract each other. Because like does attract like, but it’s seemingly opposite. Let me explain what I mean.

Two codependency types that hook up all the time and are a match made in hell, is a Withholder and a Clinger. I’m going to get into these two patterns today and talk about how it shows up and why they hook up and how it happens and how the insanity looks, so that you can have awareness, because insight is the very first step. What we want to do is put that awareness in motion and help you make some massive changes in your life so that you can have the love and relationships that you really, truly deserve. Drama free relationships, right? Where you can be yourself and be loved for exactly who you are and you don’t want to change anything or change anybody else.

Consistency, you’re not confused all the time or full of resentment or overwhelm or pain or anything else that’s stemming from these codependent patterns. As I said, I’m going to talk about the Withholder and the Clinger today. Now I’ve come up with eight different Attachment Personality Patterns. I’ve invented this name: Attachment Personality Patterns and I’ve done it as a result of the almost decade worth of research I did working inside of a dual diagnosis treatment center where people were healing from all types of addiction and codependence. And so I kept seeing these patterns emerge and kind of ran with it.

You can download a copy of my free book, “Attachment Personality Patterns”, Learn More About Codependency Here!

So, let’s get into these two patterns. Withholders are people that are very misunderstood. Because Withholders are very sensitive people, but they learned a long time ago that vulnerability is weakness. So, a Withholder keeps their emotions to themselves. They have a very tough time expressing how they’re feeling, or sometimes they’re so good at not knowing or suppressing their emotions that they don’t know how they feel. When you ask a Withholder how they feel, they’ll say, “I think I feel”. It’s very hard to get them to crack their heart open. They long for intimacy, yet a deeply afraid of it at the same time.

A Withholder longs for intimacy. It’s just that they’re afraid at the core that they’re going to be rejected. They bring people in, but then they kind of keep them at an arms distance. It’s like, come here, but not too close. And so, if you’re in a relationship with a Withholder and you start to get close to them, they will do what I call Distancing Techniques, which is they will invite an argument with you to restore the distance. Their worst fear is getting too close to you, allowing themselves to love you too much, and then being rejected by you.

Withholders want others to love them more than they love others. So, they restrict their emotions, restrict their feelings. They can be very sexually active and intimate that way, but they’ll settle for sex when what they really want is deep intimacy and love. But again, they’re not vulnerable enough to share what they’re thinking or feeling and so that real true intimacy very rarely gets created.

Now, a Clinger Attachment Personality Pattern on the other hand is on the same spectrum with the Withholder. The Clinger is an over-sharer. They go into a relationship and divulge absolutely everything. They fantasize and romanticize and put the person that they’re interested in up on a pedestal.

They are super trusting, where a Withholder trusts no one. The only person a Withholder believes they can trust is themselves. A clinger trusts before trust is deserved.

Another trait of the clinger is they don’t recognize the emotional unavailability of the people they’re attracted to. They don’t recognize that because they project a fantasy onto that person. They really blow up all their good traits and minimize the red flags or deny the red flags because they want love and relationship more than they want to see the reality of that person.

The core fear is abandonment. A Withholder fears rejection, a Clinger fears abandonment.

And so, when they first get together, it is awesome for these two people. It’s a match made in Heaven at first, because a withholder feels relief! “Oh my God, I don’t have to talk. I don’t have to do anything! I don’t have to show my emotions and feelings because this person is doing all the heavy lifting! I mean they are sharing everything all the time. They’re telling me how they feel. They’re sharing their whole life story. So, this is really great.”

And a Clinger is like, “Well, this is really great, because I can just be myself in this relationship and I feel really connected now! They’re letting me do all the talking and they’re so curious about me and my life story! They listen to me and let me go on and on! I feel so heard and loved.”

But the Clinger doesn’t feel connected because the Withholder is really connected to them, they feel connected because they’re doing all the connecting, so they don’t see the red flags.

Now initially, a Withholder won’t go in rejecting this other person, pushing them away right away, because again, a Withholder longs to be close. They get drunk on all the neurotransmitters or wellbeing flooding the brain. That’s why love is blind because we’re all love drunk as hell.

But when the neurotransmitters start to wear off, what happens?

A withholder will start to feel smothered. They’ll feel like the Clinger is too much. They’ll feel as though they can’t breathe, and they need space. can’t breathe. And they’ll start to do things to push that person away, engaging the Distancing Techniques.

But this will trigger the Clinger into more desire for closeness. They’ll try to corner the Withholder, demanding answers. “Tell me how you feel about me. Why are you confused? What are we doing here? Don’t you want me?”

Relationship confusion for a clinger makes them so anxious that they just want to resolve it, so they go harder. Clingers need constant reassurance and approval. And a Withholder will withhold approval, praise, and affection to create distance.

At this point, a Withholder might do something drastic to sabotage the relationship. They may go MIA, ghosting the Clinger. They may even begin another relationship, keeping their options open.

Here’s where things go even worse.

Eventually, a healthier Clinger will let the abandonment settle in and pull back themselves to avoid more hurt. But suddenly, once the Withholder sees this, they will become the Clinger. And then the two Patterns have switched roles.

And the Withholder becomes the Clinger, and the Clinger now becomes the Withholder.

These two Patterns can do this dance of “I hate you, don’t leave. Come here, go away” for decades.

Now maybe at this point, you are thinking, “Oh my God. This woman has literally described my relationship.” Yes. I’ve dedicated my whole life to co-dependence and understanding these patterns and how I can help you can break free.

Awareness is the first step, but what’s the second step?

It’s putting that Awareness In Motion. We AIM for relationship success.

When we work together, you find out if your relationship can work. You will finally answer the questions, “Can this be fixed or saved? Should I stay or should I go?” Once and for all and get off the fence.

Clingers finally stop feeling abandoned when you put your heart and soul into another, and they leave you.

And Withholders stop feeling so misunderstood and learn how to receive and let intimacy in.

And that’s what I want for you, codependency recovery.

The very next step is to schedule a complimentary consultation to learn more about Codependency and Toxic Relationships with our handy dandy button at the top of this page.

I’m looking forward to meeting!
And as always, if you found this helpful, will you share it and pass it along to someone else you know can benefit?

Thank you! I appreciate you!
Heidi Rain

Can an Addict Change?

by Heidi Rain | Apr 18, 2022 | Recovery

Can an addict change?

It’s important for you to answer this question because likely, you need this person to change for you to feel like you can go on in this relationship. Part of you even wonders, “should you stay? Should you go? What the hell am I doing here? Why am I putting up with this? Why am I tolerating this? I keep trying everything, nothing is working.” and on, and on and on.

So now you’re here and wondering, “is it even possible? Can they change?” I’m going to answer that question. This is designed for you to get insight into your situation. I’m giving you my perspective and opinion based upon decades worth of experience, education, and direct involvement with addiction treatment.

I worked inside a drug and alcohol treatment center for eight years.

I ran and created the family program there. I facilitated the co-dependency programming. I have worked with thousands of addicts and hundreds of family members and so what I share with you is not just an opinion that I have. It’s based on what I have seen, what I have experienced, and what I have learned. So that’s the perspective that I’m coming from today. Now again, I also don’t know your loved one. So, if you really want that discernment and you want to know for absolute sure, then go over to LoveCoachHeidi.com and you can schedule a complimentary consultation. Where we can talk about working together so that I can really get into your dynamic personally.
When we work together, you can give me all the facts. I can dissect and discern and tell you with absolute clarity exactly what I think about your situation.

Having said all that, let’s go ahead and dive in and answer the question. Can an addict change? What do you want to change? Change what? That’s the first question that you must come to terms with because it’s such a broad question. What are you trying to change? I’m going to break down the different things you might be trying to change and answer, “Can they change or not? ”

The first thing you might want to change is their Using.

Can they stop? Can they quit? Can they stop using and change their addiction and put that all behind them? The answer to that question is hallelujah, yes, they absolutely can. And the ticket to that is recovery.

If somebody is working on a solid recovery plan, absolutely they can stop using. They can get sober. They can put that behind them. Put it in the past. Move on from the compulsion and the obsession. Really heal and decide not to use drugs or alcohol ever again. We have lots of videos on the readiness for that and what recovery should look like. I have an entire program dedicated to answering every single question there is about recovery relapse, your part, their part. When you come into our program called LYFE School, which is Love Yourself First Empowerment School, you get access to that and everything else.

You might be thinking, “well, that’s common sense. I know they can change if they get into recovery. I want to know, can they change?” I think what you’re asking is can they change their personality. Can they change their behavior? Can they change the lying, the manipulating, and the gaslighting? Or whatever it is, the laziness, the self-obsession, the meanness, the numbness, can they change that? The flat effect. Is this ringing a bell? Am I singing your song? Likely, that’s the kind of thing that you’re wondering. Here’s the sad truth about that. Maybe, they can change that. What you’re asking yourself is, “Is this a question of nature or nurture?”

People are how they are. They’re born into the world how they are, and they have life experiences that compound or shift the trajectory of their lives based upon the experiences that they’ve had.
A lot of the behavior of an addict or an alcoholic looks like a narcissist. There’s an element of self-obsession. There’s an element of lack of empathy. They are inflicting pain. There’s gaslighting. There are all these things, personality-wise that you are left wondering when they get sober, is that shit going to go away?

Maybe. That’s the hard truth. Because I don’t know if this person before they started using substances had that personality that was, blaming, victim mentality, argumentative, condescending, mean, selfish, rude. I don’t know how their demeanor was before they started using, because alcohol or drugs just kind of exacerbates the underlying personality, depending upon what drugs they use. Now certainly, some other drugs can create a whole other personality and whole other psychological challenges on top of that and even take somebody more likely down a road to excavate or un-earth their mental illness.
There are lots of factors there, but here’s what my experience is. People are who they are. If they were a good person before they started using drugs or alcohol, they’re going to get back to that good person. If they always had an attitude issue, if they always were condescending, if they always had undesirable qualities, you take away the drugs or alcohol they’re there. In fact, when you take away the drugs or alcohol, sometimes those personalities that are mean or selfish or dictating or controlling will exacerbate. They will become more obvious and more evident because they were trying to medicate that anger that was underneath of that or whatever. The second question is, are they working on themselves?

You can’t just get sober. Recovery is not about, well I’m just going to stop using, and magically I’m going to become this amazing human being and trustworthy person. Just a straight shooter and just this warm, loving human. That’s not how this thing works. You get sober so that you can fix the things that led you to drink and use in the first place.

Nine times out of 10, after that pink cloud fades away and everybody’s so happy because we’re in recovery and thank God that’s over.

Recovery just begins. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you need to know what you’re in for in recovery. So many families would come into my family program when I did it at the treatment center where their loves ones were clients and they would say, “Heidi, thank you for fixing my loved one. I am just so grateful.”

And I would say, “We’re not fixing your loved one. We’re giving your loved one, an opportunity to get sober so they can see and recognize their issues which led them to use in the first place.”

And that’s one of the myths is we think, if they get sober it’s going to fix everything. Nine times out of 10, it doesn’t. I had a father in the family program that said, “thank God my son’s going to stop smoking the weed because now he’s going to be responsible. He’s going to get to work. He has so much potential.”

The truth was that kid was just lazy. He got sober and still wanted daddy to pay for halfway. Didn’t want to get a job and all those things. So, the father he had to learn how to hold boundaries and set the bottom line, to inspire his grown-ass child to take some responsibility and start to work on his life.

Sobriety isn’t not using; sobriety is creating a life you want to be awake for.

People start using drugs and alcohol to medicate a life that’s not worth living to them, there’s something missing. So, when you take away the drugs or alcohol, there’s still a hole. You could take away drugs and alcohol. That’s easy, right? Somebody comes into detox, it’s simple. Getting off drugs and alcohol is the easy part. The hard part is detoxing from the behaviors. That can take up to one year of somebody in recovery to stop manipulating, stop lying and that’s if they’re actively working on a program of recovery.
Just because they’re not using anymore, those behaviors are not going to change overnight. It’s going to take consistent time, consistent effort. Getting ministered to or therapized by somebody outside of your family that can sponsor or come alongside that person and help them see the personality traits that they want to work on, and they want to fix in their relationship challenges. That’s the answer to the second question.

But the third question is the most important question about what you’re trying to change.

This is the reason that I get to do the work that I do and really help people Many times what we’re really asking is, can I change the past? I know that we know intellectually, we cannot change the past, but we expect somebody to get sober and then undo all the damages that they have done.

Like they are magically going to be this great person and make up for all the hurt they caused. All the pain they inflicted, all the anxiety, confusion, and rage that has built up in you. We think sobriety will fix all that and change it.

Here’s what I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been doing this. Alcoholic, addicted husband goes into treatment. Feels brand new, feels great. Comes out of treatment. Tail wagging, feeling proud of himself. Feeling good and believing all the hurt in the past is undone because now he’s sober. And you’re thinking, “It’s not all better. I don’t know what planet you’re on, but you did a lot of damage here.”
You’re thinking, “Do you see the tornado that has come through this house emotionally and ripped our souls from our bodies? Do you see the damage that this has caused?”

And he’s thinking, “but I’m sober now and I really don’t want to talk about that. When you talk about the past”, the addict or alcoholic will say, “when you talk about that past, it really makes me want to use and so that was in the past. You got to be in the present moment. I’m sober now. Everything is better.”

And you’re going, but wait, there’s more. There’s more pain still there, there’s more hurt still there, there’s still more resentment and all those feelings. Now you want them to fix it and they’re the wrong person because you can’t go to the source of the pain to fix the pain.

Hear that? You cannot go to the source of your pain to fix your pain.

That’s why you need outside support. So, if they go to treatment and start to get on the recovery train and they start to work on their behaviors in recovery, you’re still left with that world of hurt, the resentment, rebuilding trust again. How do you know if somebody’s relapsing? You’re always on guard. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop or maybe you’re feeling hopeful that the whole thing’s going to change radically. And you’re reading this and you’re thinking, oh shit, that’s not the way this thing works. Well, that’s exactly why I’ve created the programs that I have. The support, the coaching that I have.

The program is there so that I can come alongside you and help you heal. So, if you want that support and are tired of struggling in anonymity and silence because you can’t tell your friends what’s going on. Or the friends you do tell would just give you the advice to go, and that’s not what you want to do. If you want the support and you want to be able to voice what’s really going on. If you want to resolve the relationship issues addiction has created and you want to make a permanent change in your own life of what you settle for, what you accept, or what you tolerate. Then, schedule a time to connect with me and let’s get going.

It’s time to stop walking on eggshells, constantly worrying about everybody else while you’re last on the list. You just want a true partner. Somebody you can rely on and count on. I want you to consider letting me come alongside you. Go over to LoveCoachHeidi.com to schedule your consultation.

Understanding Codependency

by Heidi Rain | Apr 4, 2022 | codependency

What are the Core Issues of codependency?

I get asked that question so much and it’s because codependency is still one of the most misunderstood things in the world of relationships. And so, my goal is to help you make sense. To teach things in such an easy way that you can understand your unique codependency patterns, your partner’s patterns, or other relationships that you have. Why? So that you can have the relationships that you deserve. Relationships that aren’t full of drama, resentment, confusion, where you are scratching your head wondering how to strategize or get this thing to work. That’s all codependency.

I know that codependency and the issues that you are having are really leaving you full of resentment, confusion, anxiety, pain. And ultimately our work is about breaking you free. Psychological freedom so that you have control over your own thoughts, and your mind isn’t hijacked. Constantly obsessing or worrying. Emotional freedom, where you don’t feel like you are on a love roller coaster. Constantly up and down and all over the place.

Let’s dive in. These are the six basic core issues that we have when we are codependent.

The first issue is the overarching issue that encompasses all of codependency and that’s the issue of “Identity.”

Codependency is I don’t know who I am because who I am is not good enough.

It’s not working for me to be me. So, I need to figure out who I need to be to function in this dysfunctional relationship.

What we do is we take on a way of behaving. A way of being. A personality if you will, so that we can connect, cope, survive, or thrive in this dynamic.

We take on a personality and eventually we literally don’t know who the hell we are. We scratch our heads, and we are like, I don’t know who I am. I’m a chameleon. And that’s true of codependence. You are a chameleon. You can fit in anywhere. And in fact, a lot of my students and clients, what we end up doing is when we get into a situation, a relationship, we survey the land. We look around and we do a lot of observing about who people are and we get the lock on everybody. We understand and then we say, how can I fit in to this dynamic? Who do I need to be to be okay, be liked, be respected, be whatever in this dynamic?

With codependency there’s an awful lot of strategizing that goes on. It’s like you can’t give yourself permission to just walk into the room and be who the hell you are. Because you don’t know how that’s going to be received. And again, when you grow up in a dysfunctional dynamic, and codependency is a lifestyle from an early age. It’s a pattern you took on a long time ago. It really was a survival skill. That you needed to survey the land to figure out who you needed to be so that you didn’t get hurt. Or you could cope or survive or whatever it was you were trying to do. So, these patterns, it’s not a bad thing all the way. Because at first, these patterns really kept you safe. They helped you. It’s a problem now because you want to be your true self. You want to figure out who the hell you really are.

A lot of us are at a certain point of our life where we are freaking tired of being who we need to be for everybody else.

We really do just want to have full permission to let ourselves be unleashed and be all of who we are.

An identity crisis is the first thing we suffer from in a codependent relationship. Who am I? Now for you to figure out who you are, you need to figure out first, who you’ve been and who you are not.

That’s by the process of elimination, right? Because you are not lost. You don’t need to find this version of you. You need to excavate her or him. You need to uncover by removing the masks. The masks that you’ve put on, are what I have named Attachment Personality Patterns.

Of course, my signature group coaching program called LYFE School is all about unraveling that patterning so that you can really be your authentic true self. Because here is the deal, you can’t have true love if you are not your true self.

You can’t feel fully seen, respected, loved, or adored if you are not yourself. Because they are not really loving you. And you feel that disconnect, don’t you? You know that you are not being loved for who you really are because you are not really being your authentic self.

You are being who you need to be. So “Identity” is the first issue.

The second issue, core codependency issue that we have and how it shows up is “Control Issues.”

Now, codependency tends to be all or nothing, black or white. And we can vacillate on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, it’s the same issue.

I’ve heard a lot of people say, “well I’m not codependent but my husband is.” “I’m not codependent but she definitely is codependent.” Well, what is “co?” What’s codependent? Are two people, right? Two people. So, we might not think we are codependent. They are codependent not us, but the way the reality is, it takes two.

Control issues manifest one or two ways. You are in charge. It’s your way or the highway. You want to tell people how to think, how to feel, how to behave. Now, here’s the thing, controllers aren’t malicious unless they’re pathological and then they turn into narcissistic personality disorder.

But I don’t deal in disorders or pathology. I deal in patterns. As a coach, that’s a very different perspective.

I’m not telling you that you are broken, or you are sick, or you have a diagnosis. I’m telling you this a pattern. So, I’m going to take the approach that this type of controller isn’t pathological. They are doing it because it’s more benevolent.

You are controlling because you think bad things are going to happen if you don’t. Now this can be problematic, obviously. When people can feel like you are always trying to control them and tell them what to do and how to think and how to behave and you are anxious a lot. Walking around like hypervigilant, making sure everything’s okay. This with a controller, feelings of complete and total overwhelm is probably the biggest issue that controllers feel in addition to resentment when people don’t take the advice that we are giving them or follow through.

But a controller will also manipulate, they’ll strategize. They figure out here’s how I need people to behave. How do I get them to behave the way I want them to behave? Controllers play a lot of games in relationships.

Now on the other side of that spectrum of control, is people who allow others to control them. And they end up in a People Pleaser Pattern versus a Controller Pattern, though they both have control issues.

They let other people tell them what they think and how to feel and they look to other people.

A people pleasing codependent feels as though they have no control. They go with the flow. They are complicit, compliant, doing whatever needs to be done, unwilling to rock the boat or break any eggs.

As far as control issues go, like attracts like but on the opposite end of the spectrum. A Controller Pattern and a Pleaser Patterns hook up.

And this is a match made in hell because these two are feeding off each other in this dynamic and they are both tired of it. Controllers often will say, “I just want you to tell me what you want, and I just want you to step up. I don’t want to be in control all the time. I don’t want to have to be the one all the time.” And a pleaser says, “Just tell me what you want me to do. And I’ll do it.” They are afraid to be in control and make a mistake.

One is afraid of being in control and the other is afraid of being out of control.

What does healthy control look like? The middle Way.

The middle way is a very Daoist, it’s a very Buddhist philosophy. It’s not all or nothing. And codependents need to learn that it’s not black and white. There is a middle way. So, what would the middle way look like between a controller and a pleaser? It would look like we meet in the middle. I control what I can and I back down when I need to, and I let other people do their thing. I encourage other people to have their own thoughts and own opinions and I take no shit, but I’m still kind.

In LYFE School we work on these core issues.

The next issue is, “Self-Esteem Issues.”

At the root of all co-dependency issues is this core issue of self-esteem regulation. And for many people, the Attachment Personality Patterns are a way to regulate our self-esteem. Every single pattern is about regulating self-esteem. And I’ll talk about two patterns and how we regulate that self-esteem first. One is perfectionism. Many of us learned early on that to have love or approval, we need to be perfect.

We are not allowed to make mistakes and so we put an extreme amount of pressure on ourselves and other people to live up to this crazy standard that we’ve set for ourselves and everybody else. We fall short, they fall short, but I’ll tell you a perfectionist pattern has a real hard time owning their own shit.

They are very adept at looking at other people much like the fixer pattern. The perfectionist, also like the fixer has a problem seeing themselves, because it’s all projected onto other people. But a perfectionist does judge themselves very harshly.

That’s the difference, right? Where a fixer feels like they have it all together, most of the time a perfectionist behind closed doors really does feel terrible. But to regulate that self-esteem, they just aim higher. They just keep on setting that goal and that standard and they never quite reach it, of course. A lot of perfectionists procrastinate.

They never really get the thing done that they want to do because they can’t do it the right way. Nobody else is doing things the right way.

When I have a perfectionist in my program, and they’ll say things like “Did I do the right thing?” They want to do thing right because if they do it right then they are going to be good and that’s the goal underneath. Perfectionists don’t feel good unless they are perfect. And you can imagine when they do make a mistake, their whole world crumbles and falls apart.

There’s very little room for other people to have their own opinions or thoughts about how to do things because the perfectionist is like, “I know exactly what you need to do or how we should do this.”

Another self-esteem regulator shows up, is in the Pretender Pattern. Sometimes I call the Performer. Which is, I put on a show. I suck it up. Now this is a person who is very concerned about appearances, not necessarily integrity. They will lie just to look good. They will do whatever they need to do to make sure that they are perceived a certain way. They want to curate their image.

Through a Pretender may be struggling significantly, they feel “The show must go on”.

The next core issue we are going to talk about is “Trust Issues.”

Back to our personality patterns to take a deeper look at this issue. Two patterns, same issue, opposite sides of the spectrum

A Withholding Personality learned very early on that vulnerability is for the weak. It’s kind of like a pretender and a performer, except Withholders are extremely sensitive people. They feel things very deeply, but their biggest fear is that you are going to hurt them. Because they don’t want you to use their vulnerability or weakness as they see it, against them, they withhold their feelings. They withhold their thoughts.

They withhold their feelings from you because they don’t want you to have access to them. A withholder wants intimacy so deeply, but they are so afraid of being rejected at the end of the day, that they kind of keep people at an arms distance.

Now on the other side of that spectrum of trust issues is the Clinger. They over trust.

The Withholder under trusts and the Clinger over trusts.

A clinger is a ride or die. They are loyal to a fault. And these two patterns hook up.

Withholders love a clinger because at first, they don’t have to share anything because a clinger overshares. They are oversharing and dominating.

A withholder really likes that at first, right? Because it feels good. Because again, remember their biggest fear is being rejected. So, clingers make them feel good.

But after a while, a withholder will start to feel very smothered by a clinger and they will start to pull back and a clinger’s biggest fear is abandonment. That’s why they ride or die. They will stay with anybody because that’s better than being with nobody.

Clingers also don’t recognize the emotional unavailability of the people they are attracted to. Withholders are not emotionally available, but a clinger doesn’t see that, they just fantasize. They project “this is the one. I’ve never felt this way before.”

A clinger is so wrapped up in the ideology and the fantasy of the relationship that they fail to see the reality of the person that they’re with.

And so now, when the withholder starts to pull away, they trigger up the clinger’s abandonment issues. And the clinger clings harder and then the Withholder feels totally smothered. They pull away even more.

Then eventually a clinger says, “okay, you know what? I’ve had enough of this. I’m out of here.” And the clinger pulls away and the Withholder goes, “where are you going? Don’t leave me”. Because now their rejection is triggered up. They chase after the Clinger and they can do this dance for decades, clingers and withholders.

I’m sure at this point you can see how rich this content is. There are three levels when you are working with me. The first is beginner, where you identify what pattern, you are and you see how you are operating and that’s level one.

And that is crucial. You can’t miss this. You’ve got to have insight into yourself and your partner. You’ve got to nail your pattern.

And by that in LYFE School we take that pattern and do a whole process to understand how that pattern shows up for you. What behaviors you exhibit. What are your trigger feelings? Where did it come from? And it’s a lot of work.

Level two is apprentice. And this is where you start to practice Detaching rom the Patterns in your daily life. You start to see so much more. You can point out other people’s patterns quicker. You can bypass the patterns. You see the flags come in. You know who to be with, who not to be with. You take that knowledge that you get in beginner and you put it into motion and action in your everyday life and you become an apprentice.

And then level three of understanding is mastery and this is for many people who want to go the whole way and become a coach with me. They have a mastery of this information. They’re living it and they master it so that they can teach other people and help other people.

The next core issue with co-dependency is “Emotions”.

Now, how you can identify if you’re co-dependent isn’t just through the behaviors or identifying your patterning, which is crucial. That’s the first step. But your emotions are another barometer that you are codependent.

What emotions are you experiencing on a regular basis? Resentment, confusion, pain, anxiety, abandonment, rejection?

When you’re trapped in your pattern, you feel these feelings on a regular basis.

Emotion as a core issue for codependency manifests one of two ways: Repression or Dysregulated Expression.

A Withholder suppresses emotions and has trouble identifying feelings.

A pleaser has repressed their feeling for so long that they don’t have access to what they need or want anymore.

A controller attempts to tell others how to feel.

A perfectionist condemns and judges feelings.

A clinger’s emotions are a whirlwind that sucks others in.

A victim lives in unresolved, unprocessed, unrecognized pain.

A pretender sucks up other feelings

A fixer worries about and feels responsible for everyone else’s feelings.

And the ne thing they all have in common is that eventually, emotions take us over and we reach a breaking point,

Our Codependency recovery program is geared toward learning how to identify your emotions, be in your emotions, feel your emotions and learn how to effectively express and communicate them

So many of us are so focused on other people that we do not know how we feel. We are so used to turning off our feelings, or we’ve been gas lit. Many of us who grew up in dysfunctional, toxic, abusive households, addicted households, got the message early on that your feelings don’t matter. It doesn’t matter how you feel. Or it wasn’t safe for you to feel. So, you learned how to disassociate or shut off your feelings.

Codependency recovery is a walk back home to your own sensitivity. It’s learning how to feel those feelings again and express those emotions properly and appropriately for you. And learn how to communicate those emotions to people

The last core issue is Responsibility.

As I have stated earlier, codependency is black and white. You are over responsible or under responsible. And here are the two patterns we enact. If you’re overly responsible, you’re a Fixer Personality. You think their problem is your problem. You have caseloads instead of friends. You take on more. Put on your cape and run to the rescue.

On another side, you’re totally irresponsible and you are a Victim Personality.

The Victim takes no responsibility at all whatsoever.

What do they do? They blame everything and everybody else for their problems. They have an excuse for everything. They minimize their problems. They justify their problems. Excuse, rationalize, project their issues on other people.

A victim takes no responsibility, and a hero takes all the responsibility.

Fixers and victims are peas in a pod, partners. They attract one another.

So how do you resolve these core issues?

That’s the purpose of LYFE School. Love Yourself First Empowerment. We work together to resolve these core issues.

You resolve the issues of control. Meet in the middle. Learn what’s yours and what’s other people’s.

Same with responsibility. Trust, learn how to develop that divine intuition. Trust yourself, your judgment. Open up, receive from other people. Stop being the giver and other people the taker. You learn how to receive for once.

Self-esteem issues. You feel good about yourself at your core.

You know who you are. You are not confused about your identity anymore. How awesome is that? That’s recovery and that’s what we are working towards. And for the committed people who say, “This is my time. I want to take my life and own it. I want to plug up the power leaks that I have in my life with the people sucking my power. The places I don’t want to be sucking my power. The things in my life that are sucking my power.”

Imagine what you would do if you plugged up that leak and took all that power back. You would be able to manifest your life on your terms, exactly the way you want it, and you know, what’s so true? You deserve that! You’re a good person. Now’s your time. So, let’s get to work. What core issues are you working on? What are the core issues that resonated with you the most? What core issues do you want to tackle first?

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