A Qualitative Analysis of Couples’ Experiences of Pathological Codependency and Its Consequences for Mental Health
Keywords:
codependency, mental health, couples, qualitative analysis, personal boundaries, TehranAbstract
This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of couples in Tehran regarding pathological codependency and to explain its perceived consequences for individual and relational mental health. This qualitative study used thematic analysis. The participants were 22 married individuals from Tehran who were recruited through purposive sampling based on their lived experience of codependent relational patterns, marital distress, and willingness to discuss their couple relationship in depth. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. All interviews were conducted after obtaining informed consent, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. The analytic procedure included familiarization with the data, initial coding, theme construction, theme review, theme definition and naming, and report writing. The analysis generated five main categories: “collapse of personal boundaries and dissolution of the self in the partner,” “the cycle of excessive caregiving, control, and helplessness,” “emotional exhaustion and relational anxiety,” “social isolation and reduced psychological autonomy,” and “ambivalent dependency, chronic conflict, and perceived entrapment.” Participants described codependency not as intense love, but as an erosive relational pattern in which self-worth becomes tied to the partner’s mood, approval, and behavior. The reported mental health consequences included anxiety, rumination, depressive mood, guilt, reduced self-esteem, emotional fatigue, and impaired independent decision-making. The findings indicate that pathological codependency in couple relationships may gradually blur the boundary between healthy intimacy and harmful enmeshment. Through excessive caregiving, control, fear of abandonment, and psychological exhaustion, this pattern may undermine the mental health of both partners. Couple therapy interventions should therefore focus not only on overt conflict reduction but also on reconstructing personal boundaries, strengthening differentiation of self, improving emotion regulation, reducing rescuing behaviors, and promoting healthy interdependence.
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