Post by Susan Peabody on Oct 17, 2022 17:25:30 GMT -8
A relationship addict is someone who is addicted to or dependent on a relationship but there is no romance involved. It includes an addiction to parents, children, siblings, friends etc. If you are married, then you are just addicted to the routine or the companionship. You are unhappy, but afraid of moving on. With children you love your child, but you are too enmeshed. Your whole life revolves around your children whether they are young and old. Someone who is addicted to a parent has no will to outgrow the relationship. They still let the parent control them and make decisions. For example, I read a story recently of a prospective mother-in-law did not like the bride's choice of wedding gown. To please his mother, the groom exchanged the dress for the one his mom left. His bride was furious.
Relationship addictions are even harder to recover from than love addiction because often no-contact is not possible. I was on a jury once and the man on trial killed his wife. When he got on the witness stand, he said he could just not choose between his wife (relationship addiction) and his mistress (love addiction). He said he was powerless to choose so he just killed his wife in desperation.
These cases may seem extreme, but they really happened. Recovery from relationship addiction is a weaning of the enmeshment and separating by creating a new life.