 In actual fact, codependency is a difficult issue to define. Earnie Larsen, a codependency specialist defined it as "Those self-defeating, learned behaviors or character defects that lead to a diminished capacity to participate in loving relationships."
There is a simpler way of describing codependency - it is in how it is exhibited. On the whole, codependency demonstrates itself in a variety of relationship behaviors like caretaking, enabling the destructive behaviors of another, people-pleasing, maintaining the peace at all costs or allowing another person has power over your own actions or decisions.
It's easy to understand then, how codependency influences the decision of many women in an ill-timed pregnancy situation. Lots of men believe mistakenly, after three decades of misinformation concerning abortion, that it is a simple procedure with little or no noteworthy side-effects. When weighed against the long-term consequences of fatherhood, many men will pressure their girlfriend or wife into having an abortion. Women that have a healthy sense of self and a healthy view of relationships generally will not be swayed by these men. Codependent women, though, will most often go through with an abortion to satisfy the father of the child or out of fear of losing her relationship with him.
A codependent woman may not even understand how much she wants the child she's carrying until after the abortion since her emotions are overfilled withy the fear of losing her boyfriend. Evidently by the time she realizes how she really feels, the abortion is over, the child is gone, and she is left with the emotional pain of that loss.
Codependency develops through various things. The most widespread of them is growing up in situations riddled with unrestrained anger, fear, or any form of abuse. For example, children of alcoholics and the drug-addicted will often get codependency characteristics.
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