Every close relationship asks you to show up for someone else, but there's a line between healthy support and losing yourself in the process. The debate over codependency vs healthy relationship dynamics comes up constantly in couples counseling, because the two can look almost identical from the outside. A supportive partner cheers you on and steps back when you don't need help. A codependent partner needs you to need them, and that difference shapes everything from how you

Like many psychological terms that make their rounds on social media—bipolar, narcissist, borderline, and others—codependency has become a popular buzzword, often used without a full understanding of what it truly means. You’ve likely heard it described as “needing someone to survive,” but that definition oversimplifies—and ultimately misrepresents—what codependency actually is. In this article, I want to clarify what codependency really looks like, why it develops, and how i