Welcome to the Breakdown to Breakthrough podcast.

My name is Lisa A. Romano.

I am a life coach, best-selling author, YouTube vlogger, meditation teacher, an expert in the field of codependency and narcissistic abuse.

I am a believer in the power of an organized mind.

My aim is to help people learn what it means to live above the veil of consciousness, rather

than living a reactive life.

May your heart feel blessed, your mind feel expanded, and your spirit find hope as you

spend time with me here at the Breakdown to Breakthrough podcast.

So today, we're going to be talking about how you might really be able to understand

whether or not it is you are codependent. My name is Lisa E. Romano and I am an expert in the

field of mental toughness. And the things that I've learned along my life's path, I learned the hard way, like so many of us do.

The school of hard knocks, if you will.

As a recovering codependent, as an adult child of two unrecovered adult children of alcoholics,

I grew up in a home that was very oppressive.

We weren't allowed to feel. We weren't allowed to express ourselves. In fact, our home was very

stoic. It was very cold. It was very rigid. And interestingly enough, the only person that was

really allowed to express themselves was my dad. I could tell that my

mother very much repressed her emotions and I, like all children do, internalize that. I got the

sense that women were supposed to not feel, that women were supposed to acquiesce, that women were supposed to tone themselves down, almost unplug

themselves from their power in order to make the men in their lives feel better. I watched my

mother do this my entire life. And sadly, she died that way, in my opinion. Very much under the thumb of my father,

very much subjugating her needs and acquiescing and caretaking and rescuing her two brothers

...