A Comprehensive Guide to CoDA: Codependents Anonymous
In This Article
Do you feel as though your relationships often become all-consuming? Do you enable bad behavior in a partner or family member, or are you too focused on them and their feelings to the point of neglecting your needs?
Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA) is a membership community for people with a common desire to develop healthy and functional relationships. It's a non-professional fellowship that offers a 12-step program for codependents.
CoDA doesn't offer a definition or diagnostic criteria for codependency. But Mental Health America defines codependency as “a learned behavior” that can be hereditary.
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A Comprehensive Guide to CoDA: Codependents Anonymous
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Who is Co-Dependents Anonymous for?
Co-Dependents Anonymous helps members develop and maintain nurturing relationships with themselves and others.
Many people who join Co-Dependents Anonymous wonder if codependency defines them. If you or someone you know is on a journey of self-discovery, Co-Dependents Anonymous may be for you.
How to Join CoDA
It's never too late to reach out and ask for help along your path to recovery from codependency. And you can take it one day at a time. To get involved in Co-Dependents Anonymous, visit their site at CoDA.com.
Understanding Codependency and Its Impact
Codependency is “an emotional and behavioral condition that affects a person's ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship.” In other words, codependency is a relationship addiction. It was first identified as a disorder about a decade ago.
Codependent people may find themselves in one-sided relationships that are toxic on an emotional level. They may learn this behavior by watching and imitating other family members who display it.
Whatever the case, it's emotionally destructive. If left untreated, codependency can only further hurt you and those around you.
The Growth and Role of Co-Dependents Anonymous
Co-Dependents Anonymous exists to help codependents unlearn their behaviors and form happier, healthy relationships. The first Co-Dependents Anonymous meeting in 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona, welcomed 30 people.
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Benefits of CoDA for Codependency
While therapy is vital, Co-Dependent Anonymous is a community where you can rediscover yourself alongside others in similar situations. With other codependents in your position, you can work on identifying and breaking self-defeating behaviors.
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Types of CoDA Meetings
Newcomer Meetings
Newcomer meetings are for first-timers who are coming with curiosities. If your loved ones or medical professionals suggest you attend a Co-Dependents Anonymous meeting, you’ll get started at the newcomers meeting.
What is Cross Talking?
Cross-talking minimizes others’ feelings and experiences. Plus, it can be a trait of codependency that members are trying to break. Co-Dependent Anonymous combats this practice and has strict guidelines against it.
What's Next?
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- Bacon et al. “The Lived Experience of Codependency: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 2020.
- “Co-Dependency.” Mental Health America, n.d.
- "CROSSTALK." Co-Dependency Anonymous, n.d.
- “Meeting Materials.” Co-Dependency Anonymous, 2020.
- Panaghi et al. “Living with Addicted Men and Codependency: The Moderating Effect of Personality Traits.” Addiction & Health, 2016.
- Wright et al. “Measuring Codependents' Close Relationships: A Preliminary Study.” Journal of Substance Abuse, 1990.
