Hey, hey, hey, how you doing?

My daughter's off in college in New York City and every time I call her, she answers to the phone,

Hey girl, hey!

And every time it cracks me up, I don't know why.

I was thinking about doing that with you and then I'm like, no, that's not

appropriate. You need to rein it in, Michelle. Although I kind of just did, didn't I? All right. So,

today we are going to cover a very, very popular topic in the world of addiction. And it is

codependency. All right. There's been books written about this. There's been all sorts of stuff written about this topic.

I'm going to choose to keep it simple because this podcast and the blog, it's the simplest form of help because I don't want to overwhelm you. You don't want to have a lot of time.

And I just want to keep it kind of light and actionable. So being codependent can go hand in hand

with loving someone suffering from addiction. I don't need to tell you that,

do I? Like two magnets that are attracted to one another, we connect with our partner by a force

that feels greater than ourselves. Love definitely has something to do with it, but also there might be some relationship dynamics at play.

Now, if you're wondering, am I suffering from codependency? Here are three clues and a very simple

solution for each. Number one, you put everyone's needs before your

own. This is one of the first key signs that you are struggling with codependency. You are a

caretaker, a nurturer. You are always thinking of others and saying no to people feels difficult.

You might be afraid to disappoint them, so you say yes and overcommit and then push through it.

Because taking care of you first would feel incredibly selfish. So if that sounds like something

that you deal with, just ask yourself in this moment, what do I need? What do I need? What can I do to make

that happen? And then this is the hard part. Make it a priority. It's really that

simple. And taking care of yourself is the right thing to do even if it feels scary. Push through

...