Codependent No More Melody Beattie Quotes & Sayings

A codependent person is one who has let another person's behavior affect him or her, and who is obsessed with controlling that person's behavior. — Melody Beattie

Life is full of uncertainties. Future investment earnings and interest and inflation rates are not known to anybody. However, I can guarantee you one thing.. those who put an investment program in place will have a lot more money when they come to retire than those who never get around to it. — Noel Whittaker

The life around me was not meaningful. I always longed to be away from it, and always had done. So the life I led was not my own. I tried to make it mine, this was my struggle, because of course I wanted it, but I failed, the longing for something else undermined all my efforts. — Karl Ove Knausgard

I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life. — Maya Angelou

Children by the Nazi forces, for slave labor — Edith Hahn Beer

The past is frozen. Written in stone. But the future isn't. — Cora Carmack

Form and function are a unity, two sides of one coin. In order to enhance function, appropriate form must exist or be created. — Ida Pauline Rolf

Real comedy doesn't just make people laugh and think, but makes them laugh and change. — Sam Kinison

Dad never went to church. Here, in waning rain and emerging sunshine, was his church. It was the abiding experience of the day, converted in the instant into boundless existential expression -- bold, cold, subtle, warm, fleeting and timeless -- a dance of natural opposites. — George Heuston

Animals, People and Trees Will All Bow
By My Very Appearance.
I Bowed When I Was Born.
P.C.M. Hermans — Petra Hermans

It's hard to give up the self-esteem connected to being codependent and appearing 'right,' which is probably a survival behavior learned from growing up in a crazy family. It feels like you will actually disappear. — Melody Beattie

[Reactionaries] Just feeling urgent and compulsive is enough to hurt us. We keep ourselves in a crisis state ... ready to react to emergencies that aren't really emergencies. Someone does something, so we must do something back. Someone says something, so we must say something. Someone feels a certain way, so we must feel a certain way. WE JUMP INTO THE FIRST FEELING THAT COMES OUR WAY AND THEN WALLOW IN IT. — Melody Beattie

What's a codependent? The answer's easy. They're some of the most loving, caring people I know. — Melody Beattie

No. Wait. I ... wait.
Damen stopped, and turned. Laurent's
gaze was edged with indecipherable
emotion, and his jaw was set
at a new angle. The silence stretched out
for such a long time that the words, when
they came, were a shock. — C.S. Pacat

Ever since people first existed, they have been doing all the things we label "codependent." They have worried themselves sick about other people. They have tried to help in ways that didn't help. They have said yes when they meant no. They have tried to make other people see things their way. They have bent over backwards avoiding hurting people's feelings and, in so doing, have hurt themselves. They have been afraid to trust their feelings. They have believed lies and then felt betrayed. They have wanted to get even and punish others. They have felt so angry they wanted to kill. They have struggled for their rights while other people said they didn't have any. They have worn sackcloth because they didn't believe they deserved silk. — Melody Beattie

Once they have been affected---once "it" sets in---codependency takes on a life of its own. It is similar to catching pneumonia or picking up a destructive habit. Once you've got it, you've got it.

If you want to get rid of it, YOU have to do something to make it go away. It doesn't matter whose fault it is. Your codependency becomes your problem; solving your problems is your responsibility. — Melody Beattie

I gave three years of my life to take care of my dying mother who had Alzheimer's disease. Being there for her every need for three years might have looked codependent but it wasn't because it was what I wanted to do. — Melody Beattie

For every thing you find that's of comfort...there are two with the power to hurt. — Stephen King

One day you are happy and laughing and the next you are crying. — Grete Waitz