Blessed by Balanced Relationships
“One of the best feelings in the world is knowing that your presence and absence both mean something to someone.” Anonymous As a codependent I spent most of my life painfully wanting someone—almost anyone—to want and need me. I searched desperately every day to find that someone who would both enjoy and miss my presence. My radar was always on and every person who crossed my path was potentially “the one.” It never occurred to me before recovery that I needed to first appreciate my own presence. I needed to see myself as a valuable person and to treat myself as such. I needed to be comfortable being me and being with me. I needed to like and love me. And I needed to believe that my presence meant something. Because this idea never occurred to me, my neediness was off-the-scale. It was so flaming-out-of-control that most people ran when they saw me coming. After all, neediness fueled by self-loathing and constant internal misery is rarely appealing to anyone. And i...