If you’ve heard the term codependency tossed around alongside other “toxic” relationship buzzwords, you might picture obvious ...

In a codependent relationship, your partner might cut you down ('God, you're so boring, this is why you have no friends'), causing you to cave ('Fine, we'll go out, it doesn't matter anyway').

Being codependent is hardly the same as simply being dependent. And in some ways, it’s crucial that these two types of dependency be seen as distinct.

Alison Brie stars as Millie, a teacher who's ready to take the next step in her relationship: marriage. Her partner of more ...

Instead, codependent relationships look like one person feeling like they need to, for example, cook for their partner, while the other person needs to be cooked for, explains Ruiz.

Being in a codependent relationship, however, can mean being boxed in in a much smaller, suffocating space. “There is not enough room in the codependent box for each of you to be separate people ...

An amusingly icky body-horror movie stars real-life partners Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a codependent couple.

Narcissists exhibit core codependent symptoms of shame, denial, control, dependency (unconscious), and dysfunctional communication and boundaries, all leading to intimacy problems.