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