Codependency versus Dependent Personality Disorder

What's the difference? Pdoc says I'm codependent on my mother. I didn't receive any sort of diagnosis so I don't know what to think.

Codependency means you rely on a person. This can be because of illness (physical or mental), and in fact usually is. Have you been diagnosed with anything else (anxiety, depression, PTSD, etc)? If so, maybe he means your illness makes you codependent on her. It's not uncommon for people with mental illness to be codependent. It doesn't necessarily mean they feel like they can't survive otherwise, though. It basically just means they struggle to (as in have a hard time finding a job because of their symptoms, have a hard time shopping because of symptoms, etc).

Whereas with dependent personality disorder we feel we literally can't survive without the person whom we depend on. With us, there is often a deep seated fear of losing this person. Many of us may jump from relationship to relationship to avoid having to be independent. Being independent feels like an impossible task. I often fear losing my partner, because I'm terrified that I won't be able to support myself. I am not only codependent on him, but I feel like I literally need him.

Make sense?

Thank you bronze, makes sense. I do have multiple disorders so it's probably just regular codependency.

Yes, it makes sense. I'm in a somewhat similar situation. My wife & I have been married 23 years; a couple for 26. There were many problems from the time we started dating and I kept trying to 'figure out' what was going on, empathetic and trying to help her understand herself. My bipolar illness re-emerged in 2004 and I went from working full time to part time until I was too sick to even work 10 hours a week. I became dependent on my wife for a roof over my head and couldn't contribute to paying the bills.

From the time we started dating, she was verbally and emotionally abusive and because I was madly in love with her, I tolerated it. Five years ago, in couples therapy, I came to understand that I have a dependent personality but I also had developed learned helplessness and feeling hopeless. She knows it and exploits it. I'm like an indentured servant, not her husband who has an illness. No autonomy nor independence. She calls the shots because she has the money.

I can touch and taste freedom but, even though I receive a monthly Social Security check and have some money in the ban k, I'm so utterly fearful of reclaiming my life and I hate myself for the man I've become.

@Intergalactic traveler: Yes, I know what that's like, i used to live with my Mom and she did everything for me. She thought for me, she kept up with my appointments, she kept up with everything for my car, and she was constantly buying me things. She bought me a chair for my apartment earlier this week. I was raised this way from birth, I never learned how to do anything for myself. I didn't stay there because i was emotionally attached, i stayed there because i couldn't hold a job. Employers hated me when they found out i couldn't do anything for myself. I was misreble at mom's, sometimes my self esteem was so low I couldn't even get out of bed. Finally, in the early '90's, I got a job as a petitioner and moved out and shared an apartment with a friend of mine. Then, in the late '90's, my Dad helped me get on SSI and I moved to California and became a street performer, a job I was really good at. I'm back in Little Rock now and she hasn't learned anything, she still tries to do everything for me. I have my own apartment, though.

@:IntergalacticTraveler One more thing, if you're in an abusive relationship, GET OUT!!IWhen I was in therapy, my therapist emphasised that over and over. DON'T LET PEOPLE ABUSE YOU! DON'T STAY IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH AN ABUSIVE PERSON!!I If you have social security and money in the bank, you should get your own place. You should get some books on assertiveness training and you can learn to do things for yourself!

I been diagnosed with codependency try watching Lisa A Romano Codependency Symptoms, and Codependency Relationships YouTube Videos and her books Codependency no more, A road back to me.

I already had this "thanked", so maybe i replied already, but man, dependant really sounds like me. 😭

Or maybe because i am sooo Codependent I am way scared of the extreme difficulties of being on my own. I mean, i COULD be on my own, if i believed i was gonna be ok. So, that's why this is so difficult to sort out. What if someone was an invalid? I mean they might literally depend on someone, but does that give them the personality disorder?

I don't really know what you mean by "invalid" but I think if you literally physically can't survive without other people because, I don't know, you're a triple amputee or something, that doesn't really count for DPD. I think when they said "can't survive without the other person" means they feel incapable of day to day life without somebody to rely on in more of an interpersonal/social way than a physical way.

Yeah, so, i kind of elaborated on this a bit more on another thread tonight. So i actually got an official test result with this, or maybe like a "partial diagnosis". I forget the wording. So, and i mean i do have some like emotional reactions to relationship stuff, like i can't work as well on certain things unless i have company...

But yeah, i also am a bit codependent. I can like walk and have all of my limbs, but I'm weaker and/or have less endurance because of a kind of autoimmune disorder and thyroid and woman's issues, so like i MIGHT be able to live on my own, but it truthfully would not be pleasant, and i dont have a job or money for insurance and health care that i am pretty dependant on right now. So, I'm not sure if that's what most people think of as invalid, but that's what i meant.

But so yeah, like maybe the fact that i am TERRIFIED of the thought of ever having to apply for and keep a job, might be considered a dependancy? Like i feel like at this point, someone will have to hook me up and be SUPER forgiving... Also, i have never lived alone, not where i had to support myself. Always had someone else paying the bill. So yeah, terrifying to think of the alternative.