The 3 types of emotional dependence: what are they?
The emotional dependence usually manifests itself in the relationships of oneself with others and is usually related to the couple, family or certain friendships. In this sense, we can talk about types or kinds of emotional dependence .
It is a complex psychological state, in which the person who suffers feels unable to break the ties that bind him to that unstable, destructive, unbalanced relationship and where the other person is idealized, affecting very negatively their self-esteem, Physical and mental health.
Emotional dependence: the same as an addiction
As with addictions, emotional dependence also produces withdrawal syndrome and this is mainly motivated by fear of loneliness or panic to break the relationship. In addition, emotional dependence also influences the development of obsessive thoughts and states of anxiety or depression, which occasionally disappear if the relationship or contact is resumed.
In general, there are certain characteristics that can be associated to people who are emotionally dependent on others such as: lack of self-esteem, negative moods, fear of being alone, philophobia, putting the relationship before anything else, need for constant attention on the part of the other person, ease in isolating himself from everything around him in favor of the relationship, the need to always please the other person, self-annulment, feeling inferior to the other and even a lack of communication skills, what your conversations always revolve around the person you emotionally depend on .
The cause could be the fear of rejection
In addition, emotional dependence also has a social stigma as there are many labels that are imposed in this area and that can affect the behavior of people, who far from feeling free have the need to please the rest with their actions.
Otherwise, and often in a wrong way, we internally accept labels -such as selfishness- that are determined by the thoughts, feelings or expressions of another person and that, in reality, we should not always take into account.
The types of emotional dependence and their areas
The fear of rejection, not being loved, valued and even admired by other people, also reinforce that "social need" to be emotionally dependent and that feeling, in most cases extrapolated to other important aspects of life as the couple , family or friends.
In what areas does emotional dependence most often manifest itself? We could talk about 3 main areas in which emotional dependence can manifest in a person and they are: the couple, the family and the social environment; they are known as types of emotional dependence.
1. In the couple
The emotional dependence of the couple, it is the form that appears with greater assiduity in our society and is also the most recognized . As we said at the beginning of the article, the symptoms are quite similar to those that can suffer from an addicted person, in many cases leading to the withdrawal syndrome.
People who depend emotionally on their partner, have a totally wrong concept of what a relationship should mean because they forget their own identity, often feel jealous, have an extreme desire to be with that person all the time, they can not and do not want to do other activities that do not involve their partner and make them the obsessive center of their well-being, as well as obsessively controlling each act or thought of the other.
2. In the family
On the other hand, we will talk about emotional dependence on the family when a person shows excessive and obsessive attachment towards certain members of their family nucleus .
For example: the need to talk to that person every day, to know about her and control her day to day, to need her criteria to feel emotionally secure, not to be able to make decisions without the approval of that person, to give up other projects by the fact of having to separate and the lack of time for oneself, are aspects that characterize a person who has emotional dependence towards one or several members of their family nucleus.
- Recommended article: "Toxic families: 4 ways in which they cause mental disorders"
3. In the social environment
Emotional dependence on the social environment is manifested in people who have the need to be recognized by the rest in order to feel at their height , to be accepted in their work environment, to submit to the approval of their closest circle of friends and to devote the time to worry excessively about the needs or problems of others, forgetting about themselves.
It is also important in this regard, to mention emotional co-dependency relationships.This type of emotional dependence implies the link between two or more people, implies a dependence that occurs simultaneously between them and there are different areas in which it can develop, such as the ones discussed above -couple, family or society- and others like the labor or the educational.
