Listen as we interview Debbie Sherrick, a certified Holistic Health Counselor and co-dependency Life Coach teaching people how to unite mind, body and spirit for a successful healthy life style. Debbie was brought up in an abusive, alcoholic home in a little Indiana farm town. The oldest of four children, she learned to rescue, care take, enable, deny self, direct, and become a young adult at a very early age. Debbie has been teaching holistic wellness to those in recovery for 22 years. She has lead codependency groups at Trinity Church International and “Home safe” in Lake Worth Florida, and many local seminars.

Debbie explains how co-dependency is often rooted in childhood and how co-dependency can hurt the addict in your lives, despite your best intentions. She shares strategies to help you with your co-dependency issues and provides resources for mother’s of addicts who may be feeling guilty, overwhelmed and unable to let go and stop enabling their children. Click here to listen…

Are you in the grips of codependency and can’t find a way out? Do you keep “rescuing” your addict over and over again, hoping and praying that maybe this time things will be different? No one can deny the heartache and frustration of dealing with an addicted loved one. As a parent, partner, family member or friend of an addict you want to do everything in your power to help. But have your crossed the line into codependency? Here are a few signs that you may stuck in a cycle of codependency and enabling your addict:

1. Do you feel the need to be in control?
2. Were you raised in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic or drug addicted parent or was one of your parents ill?
3. Do you have a hard time setting boundaries and want to please others?
4. Do you put others head of yourself and feel the desire to be a caretaker?
5. Do you spend time trying to fix other people instead of focusing on yourself?
6. Do you have a hard time saying no?
7. Does the thought of letting go and allowing others to make their own choices cause you anxiety?

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Many people who are caught up in codependency just can’t stop trying to fix their addict. It becomes a mission and they often feel they are the only one who can save the addict in their lives.

It is no accident that the addict most often has someone suffering from codependency in their life. The addict knows exactly how to push the buttons of the codependent to get what he or she wants. The codependent– desperate to help and fix the addict– gives in and will provide food, shelter, money and other comfort items to the addict, allowing the addict to avoid facing consequences of his or her behavior. The only way the addict can hit rock bottom and change is for the codependency behavior to stop.

The addict must face the truth and become responsible for his or her addiction without placing blame on others before being successful in treatment. Even the best rehabs and addiction professionals cannot help someone who continues to blame others and will not admit they have a problem. Many times the codependent and the addict need to be separated for a time period during the addiction treatment. If the addict goes in to a long term drug rehab for treatment, this allows both the addict and the codependent to seek help so that they can eventually reunite and develop a more healthy relationship.

If you are stuck in codependency and want to stop enabling the addict in your life, you must get help. A codependency coach is a great way to work on these issues. You need a specialist who is an expert in codependency and understands the condition and how to successfully treat it. Realizing you both have a problem is the first step for both the addict and the codependent to recover.

Florida is home to some of the very best rehabs and addiction professionals in Florida. The Florida Addiction Resource Directory had researched and found the best rehabs and addiction professionals in Florida and listed them here. When seeking healthcare or treatment of any kind, be sure to ask many questions and do your own research as well. Remember, the addict and the codependent must both be ready to accept help before treatment can be successful.

Codependency: Are you enabling your addict?