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

By: Pia Mellody, Andrea Wells Miller, J. Keith Miller

Narrated by: Nathan McMillan

Revised and updated with over 600,000 copies sold.

Pia Mellody creates a framework for identifying codependent thinking, emotions and behaviour and provides an effective approach to recovery. Mellody sets forth five primary adult symptoms of this crippling condition, then traces their origin to emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical and sexual abuses that occur in childhood. Central to Mellody's approach is the concept that the codependent adult's injured inner child needs healing. Recovery from codependence, therefore, involves clearing up the toxic emotions left over from these painful childhood experiences.

©2003 Pia Mellody (P)2019 Pia Mellody

Heartbreaking yet healing

It is the slap on the face that perhaps you need. However, I (and my therapist) would not recomend this book if you are just waking up to toxicity in your relationships. Wait like 3 years in therapy to start this, otherwise I bet you’ll become defensive about your behavior or your abusers’ behaviors.
And in another note, maybe it’s my spiritual trauma talking, but I dislike how pushy she is with “the higher power” very christian of her... and I don’t trust christians in any spiritual related stuff, because of this tendency to push down peoples throat their ideology.

Good book; just a little bit too detailed.

The book covers every scenario possible which I found overwhelming. I struggle with the wood codependency as to the context of the material in it.
That said, it does open your eyes to how some of the simplest things we do as parents can effect us later in life.

Wonderful Explanation

This book explained codependence very well and made me better understand parts of myself that made me feel crazy. This book will be a part of my life forever.

Helpful and Interesting

The content of this book was well laid out, cohesive, and very helpful. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more about codependence, thinks they could be codependent, or know someone who is codependent.

Great insight

Read this if you are a man who grew up with a narcissistic mother or a woman who grew up with a narcissistic father. It helps you to not project your opposite gender parent issue onto an entire gender as an adult.

Practical and insightful

Very satysfying listen. Pia started out as a clinician and built her process from ground up. It is hands on, authentic and empowering. Highly recomended for everyone who wants to get past simplified victim position of alcoholic or narcissitic abuse and sort out their life & relationships.

Love!!!

Connected on so manny levels. Love the book!!! I was able to learn so much about myself and others around me.

Good book but Horrible narration for content

The worst part about this book is the robotic narration, it was very distracting and took away from the meaningful content of the book. Not only was the narration robotic, it was cold and flat and lacked inflection and warmth, which I feel this content needs desperately.

There are parts of the book that I disagree with, but all in all good content for people dealing with co-dependence.

I recommend the book, but read it instead of listening to it. If you're unable to read it, just be prepared for the distraction of the horrible narration.

I finally found the book that helped after 20+ yrs

Omgosh, for 20+ years - even though I've read what seems like every personal development book out there - this is the first book that described my life to a T, made me finally see why I am the way I am and why I've done/do the things I do. This book is the biggest relief when I thought I'd never figure out what was wrong with me and is now the #1 book I'll recommend to ANYONE with issues because codependence is probably the underlying reason. Excellent! 👏👏

Great Overview of Codepence

This book was recommended by my therapist. It’s a clear and easy to understand guide to understanding what codependence is, how it manifests, and how it impacts lives. I strongly recommend for anyone starting to explore the topic.