Our History

In November 2018, we began our journey as a phone group in a different 12-step fellowship for codependency. We started with a Big Book study on Wednesday nights, and other affiliated meetings (phone and zoom) were created in the proceeding years to carry the message of recovery from chronic codependency.

In January 2022, after three years in the other fellowship, the Primary Purpose Group (the home group for most of us) voted to create a new fellowship focused on living the principles outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and showing others precisely how we have recovered from chronic codependency. It was joined by several other groups, and we called ourselves Recovered Codependents (RC). In March 2022, a committee was created to start a world service for our fellowship, and the RC World Service Office (Recovered Codependents, Inc.) was officially established in February 2024.

Our fellowship follows the legacy of the Primary Purpose Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Dallas, Texas, as well as of Chronic Compulsive Eaters Anonymous. Our sponsors taught us that our problem was not with others and relationships, but with our powerlessness over our own codependent thinking and behavior. Many of us desperately tried to control our codependency, and yet we failed repeatedly. We discovered that we are chronic codependents — those beyond human aid. We accepted that our illness of chronic codependency could not be overcome by therapy, setting boundaries, self help books, attending meetings, having accountability partners, etc., but we could recover by having a spiritual awakening, using the program of recovery described in the AA Big Book. If we substituted the words “codependency” for “alcohol” and “codependent thinking and behavior” for “drinking”, the Big Book was about us, and just like the alcoholic, we needed to seek a spiritual solution.

Armed with the Big Book, we launched into action. We carried the message in person, online, and over the phone, explaining to people the exact nature of our illness and sharing the solution and program of action. We either follow the instructions from the book precisely or get progressively worse in our codependency. We are a “special” (chronic) group of people for whom nothing worked except strict adherence to these principles. If we want to save ourselves, we have to follow the original 12-step instructions as outlined in the Big Book.

Now we are carrying this message to the next chronic codependent who desperately needs this freedom as much as we did. We carry it in several languages and in many countries. We help our fellows to find a sponsor and work the steps. If you find yourself in the same situation and are willing to do the work to recover, join us on this journey, and we will freely offer what was freely offered to us.