Mythos Co-Abhängigkeit

Addictive disorders are associated with high levels of stress for the social environment. While risks for children from families with addiction problems were recognized and investigated, the focus on adult relatives of people with addiction disorders in care and the focus of popular psychology was long characterized by the idea of a deficient personality structure of co-suffering family members. This concept was popularized under the term “co-dependency”. This article outlines the scope of the problem, empirical observations on family members of individuals with addiction disorders and suggests non-stigmatizing alternatives to the co-dependency model.