The Enabler: When Helping Hurts the Ones You Love

Co-dependency--of which enabling is a major element--can and does exist in families where there is no chemical dependency. Angelyn Miller's own experience is a dramatic example: neither she nor her husband drank, yet her family was floundering in that same dynamic. In spite of her best efforts to fix everything (and everyone), the turmoil continued until she discovered that helping wasn't helping.

Miller recounts how she learned to alter the way she responded to family crises and general nee...