Welcome to Co-Dependents Anonymous ©
(long version)
We welcome you
to Co-Dependents Anonymous, a program of recovery from
codependence,
where each of us may share our experience, strength, and hope in our efforts to
find freedom where there has been bondage and peace where there has been
turmoil in our relationships with others and ourselves. Most of us have been searching for ways to
overcome the dilemmas of the conflicts in our relationships and our childhoods.
Many of us were raised in families where addictions existed - some of us were
not. In either case, we have found in each of our lives that codependence is a
most deeply rooted compulsive behavior and that it is born out of our sometimes
moderately, sometimes extremely dysfunctional family systems. We have each
experienced in our own ways the painful trauma of the emptiness of our
childhood and relationships throughout our lives.
We attempted
to use others - our mates, friends, and even our children, as our sole source
of identity, value and well-being, and as a way of trying to restore within us
the emotional losses from our childhoods. Our histories may include other
powerful addictions which at times we have used to cope with our
codependence.
We have all
learned to survive life, but in CoDA we are learning to live life. Through
applying the Twelve Steps and
principles found in CoDA to our daily life and relationships, both present and
past, we can experience a new freedom from our self-defeating lifestyles. It is an individual growth process. Each of us is growing at our own pace and
will continue to do so as we remain open to God's will for us on a daily basis.
Our sharing is our way of identification and helps us to free the emotional
bonds of our past and the compulsive control of our present.
No matter how
traumatic your past or despairing your present may seem, there is hope for a
new day in the program of Co-Dependents Anonymous. No longer do you need to
rely on others as a power greater than yourself. May you instead find here a
new strength within to be that which God intended - Precious and Free.
Copyright © 1998 Co-Dependents Anonymous, Incorporated and its licensors - All Rights Reserved