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Marie Malek-Robinson, CEAP,SAP,CTAC-ACP
Illinois Department of Transportation
Bureau of Employee Services
2300 South Dirksen Parkway
Springfield, Illinois 62764
Many of us have read the papers and the books authored by those professionals in the field of co-dependency and recovery.
We can't seem to agree on a standard definition ; is it an illness, a condition, or a normal response to abnormal people. We
can however agree that it doesn't feel good, it hurts, and that merely existing becomes a chore and that until we begin to
recover we can't really begin to LIVE.
This workshop will offer the opportunity to learn how to recognize co-dependency, what it takes to treat co-dependency, and how wonderful it feels to recover. Discussions on consequences (i.e., becoming addicted to emotional pain and being involved in unhealthy relationships that eventually become unbearable) and co-dependents being more in touch with the dream of how the relationship could be, rather than how it really is. We will discuss answers to those questions we are sometimes hesitant to ask: What is it that makes us willing to wait, hope, try harder and have this incredible urge to control relationships? Why do we think we don't have the right to be happy and we don't deserve the love we so desperately seek?
This session will also offer an opportunity to understand how recovery can open our eyes to who we really are, discuss
what makes us tick and why, and reassure us there is hope from the pain of being involved in a relationship with an addicted
person (spouse, child, family member, friend or co-worker).