Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1544621248
ISBN 13: 978-1544621241
God gave women the ability to create and nurture life. During pregnancy, a woman makes room in her mind, body, and heart for another person—one who requires love and support to survive. While these are noble qualities, giving too much can have negative effects.
In A Catholic Woman’s Guide to Recovery from Codependence, Brenda Daly, PhD, LCSW, explores the dark side of a woman’s natural tendency to nurture and support: a soul sickness known as codependence. In caring for an alcoholic partner, for example, a woman may shift imperceptibly from caregiver to enabler. Just as her partner comes to depend on alcohol, so can a woman depend on supporting her sick partner, forming a codependent relationship that benefits no one.
Daly writes that codependence often arises from a woman’s low self-esteem—an obsession with external forces and a diminishment of the self. In her book, Daly uses scripture and meditations to help women escape the spiritual prison of codependence and turn their great capacity for love toward God—for to love God is to love oneself.