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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

What do you call this type of relationship....apart from toxic and dangerous?

14 replies

WhoamI83 · 04/08/2020 16:19

What do you call the kind of relationship where your very existence depends on each other? When you spilt up you don’t exist as 2 single people. For example you live in a relationship you hate, your unhappy, your husband is abusive but you go back to them. Your husband also very clearly hates you also but he won’t leave you.
I’ve left this relationships by the way but it was difficult and I felt lost, no sense of self for a long time.

OP posts:
feelingsomewhatlost · 04/08/2020 16:35

co-dependent?

feelingsomewhatlost · 04/08/2020 16:37

Facing Codependence: What It Is, Where It Comes from, How It Sabotages Our Lives

Believing In Myself: Self Esteem Daily Meditations

Compassion and Self Hate: An Alternative to Despair

When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection

These might be some good books if you think co-dependency is something you've struggled with in the past and don't want a repeat in your next relationship x

Wildwood6 · 04/08/2020 16:40

Exactly what @feelingsomewhatlost said. There's lots of written about co-dependency so if you're still feeling lost and with no sense of self there's lots of advice online that would help.

PlanDeRaccordement · 04/08/2020 16:42

Yes, co-dependent.
But not all co-dependent relationships have hatred or abuse in them. Many times it can be neediness, clinging, and love bombing.

WhoamI83 · 04/08/2020 16:43

Is it still co-dependence if it’s forced on you. I.e I didn’t go into the relationship like this but it seemed to occur. I had my own identity before him but it seems to have been lost somewhere.

OP posts:
PlanDeRaccordement · 04/08/2020 16:48

To a certain extent all co-dependence is “forced” on both partners. They both lose their individual sense of self, and start becoming very dependent on the other partner to define what they like, how they feel, etc

JudyGemstone · 04/08/2020 16:49

A waste of your one short life?

PlanDeRaccordement · 04/08/2020 16:53

This looks like a good resource for guidance on how to get back your identity.
medium.com/better-humans/the-recovering-codependents-field-guide-to-healing-from-heartbreak-b2a2bbc501e3

WhoamI83 · 04/08/2020 16:59

If one person wants their needs met or else and the other person wants to meet there needs because they are afraid is that co-dependence. The abuser needs the victims control and the victim needs the abusers love, is that dependent. I always thought my ex hated me but also was desperate for me to stay because he needed me for something.

OP posts:
PlanDeRaccordement · 04/08/2020 17:04

If one person wants their needs met or else and the other person wants to meet there needs because they are afraid is that co-dependence

No, that is not co-dependence. That is an absuive coercive relationship.

gottastopeatingchocolate · 04/08/2020 17:05

Maybe look up "trauma bonding"?

Sunrise234 · 04/08/2020 17:06

A waste of your one short life?

THIS!!

WhoamI83 · 04/08/2020 17:32

Trauma bonding sounds a lot like co-dependence but more traumatic.
Does the abuser also get trauma bonded?

OP posts:
Sunrise234 · 04/08/2020 17:46

Have you looked up the freedom project OP? I believe it is to help people suffering from abuse in their relationships but not always physical abuse.

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