What is Healthy Dependency in a Relationship and How Do We Find It? with Nedra Tawwab

Girls Gotta Eat

Ashley Hesseltine and Rayna Greenberg

Society & Culture, Comedy

4.5 • 29.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 88 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Back for another life changing discussion, we have therapist and bestselling author Nedra Glover Tawwab to talk about healthy dependency in relationships – what it is, what's the difference from unhealthy dependency/codependency, and how to achieve it. We discuss how to not lose yourself in a relationship, dating someone who's enmeshed with their family, why our attachment styles aren't fixed and how we show up differently with different people, and the problem with hyper independence. We also discuss friendship enmeshment and when one friend needs space, accommodating friends' boundaries without losing them (and when you might need to cut someone off), navigating your best friend getting into a relationship, and how to understand different peoples' communication styles. We even touch on parenting and codependency with children. Before Nedra joins us, we analyze some wrong number texts Rayna has been receiving, and answer the question 'Can a morning person be with a non-morning person?' Enjoy! Follow Nedra on Instagram at @nedratawwab and preorder her new book The Balancing Act (out February 10). Follow us on Instagram @girlsgottaeatpodcast, Ashley @ashhess, and Rayna @rayna.greenberg. Visit girlsgottaeat.com for more. Thank you to our partners this week: Article: Get a beautiful new sofa, dining table, or bed http://article.com. Liquid IV: Get 20% off your first order at https://liquidiv.com with code GGE. Revolve: Get 15% off your first order at https://revolve.com/gge with code GGE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There are actually healthy ways to be dependent.
0:03.3	There are things that we have to do as a byproduct of being in a dear media production.
0:27.2	Hi guys.
0:28.0	Hi guys.
0:28.7	Welcome to their episode of Girls Gotta Eat.
0:30.6	Welcome back.
0:31.6	We've been talking some really hard shit the last.
0:33.7	I feel happy in my body.
0:36.3	It was cathartic.
0:37.0	We had to get some stuff out.
0:39.5	Also, it's Groundhog's Day. Wait, it is? So maybe if the Groundhog sees a shadow, well,
0:46.8	Groundhog's Day is in February. What? What do you say? There's like three more months of winter.
0:52.8	Yeah, if he sees a shadow or not, what happens? We should relate it to like the political landscape. Like if he sees a shadow, maybe this nightmare will end. And if he doesn't, we have 30 more years of this dictatorship. Wait, is it? Is it two more months? Raina. He's from Pennsylvania. Yeah, we've talked about him in his family.
1:11.6	What's the thing?
1:12.8	Like if he sees the shadow, is it three more months of winter or something?
1:16.3	Or my overstepping.
1:19.2	Are you what?
1:20.6	Every year, this is like Groundhog's Day.
1:23.3	No, because remember last year, we talked about Punks of Tani Phil and how he has to live in, no, he has to live in like a library or something or a museum and Pita is against it and Peter reached out.
1:36.6	I thought that there was some scandal where Punks of Tani Phil got really skinny.
1:39.8	He looked like he was on a GLP one.
1:41.7	People got upset.
	...

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