What does codependency mean?
Codependency describes a pattern of excessive emotional and psychological reliance on another person, most often a partner struggling with addiction, illness, or chronic irresponsibility. A person caught in codependency typically organizes life around the other's needs, enables harmful behavior, and derives a sense of purpose or worth from being needed. The term emerged in American addiction treatment circles in the mid-twentieth century, originally applied to spouses of alcoholics, and later broadened to describe similar dynamics in any close relationship. Though widely used in therapy and self-help literature, it is not a formal clinical diagnosis. The word carries strongly negative connotations, implying imbalance and lost autonomy, and it is frequently invoked in discussions of boundaries, recovery, and healthy relationships. Related forms include codependent (adjective) and codependence.
nounExcessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner, typically one who has an illness or addiction; more broadly, a dysfunctional relationship pattern in which one person's sense of identity and self-worth depends on meeting another's needs.
- A relationship pattern in which one person is excessively emotionally reliant on another, typically enabling that person's addiction, illness, or irresponsibility while sacrificing their own needs.
- A broader psychological condition or trait characterized by an unhealthy degree of control over, and reliance on, another person's behavior for one's own sense of worth.
"Her codependency kept her caring for him long after his recovery had become her full-time project."
"Therapists often trace codependency to childhood family dynamics where love felt conditional."
"Support groups exist specifically for people working to overcome codependency in their relationships."
Rarely used in the plural; the word usually functions as an uncountable mass noun referring to the pattern in general. Plural forms appear occasionally when discussing multiple distinct instances across different relationships.
"The therapist had observed similar codependencies in several of her clients' family dynamics."
The word was borrowed straight from the treatment rooms of 1970s America, where clinicians noticed that the spouses of alcoholics seemed to need the addiction almost as much as the drinkers did.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of codependency
Codependency combines the prefix 'co-' (from Latin, meaning 'together' or 'jointly') with 'dependency', from the Latin 'dependere', meaning 'to hang down' or 'to hang from'. The compound arose in mid-twentieth-century American psychology, particularly within addiction-treatment communities, where it first described the partners of alcoholics. Its use expanded through the 1970s and 1980s alongside the growth of the recovery movement, and it shares its Latin root with words such as dependent, independence, and interdependence.
Related word forms
How codependency is actually used
Codependency is largely a term of psychology and self-help culture rather than formal clinical diagnosis — it appears in neither the DSM-5 nor ICD-11 as a disorder. It carries a negative or at least cautionary connotation, so describing a relationship as codependent implies dysfunction. The spelling 'co-dependency' with a hyphen is also common, especially in British usage.
Easily confused with codependency
Dependency is general reliance on something or someone (as on a drug or funding), whereas codependency specifically describes a dysfunctional relational pattern of mutual emotional reliance, often involving enabling.