overdependent
Excessively needing others
Overdependent means relying too heavily on someone or something, beyond what is healthy or practical.
The term often describes relationships where one person leans excessively on another for emotional or financial support: She worried her son was becoming overdependent on her.
It can also apply to systems or economies: a region overdependent on a single industry.
Tending to hold on
- needyWanting in essentials
- enmeshedCaught in complexity
- smotheringDepriving of air
- possessiveOverly attached, often toxically
attached · demanding · suffocating · clinging · leaning · reliant · parasitic · symbiotic
Lacking self-assurance
- anxiousTroubled by uncertainty
- fearfulFull of fright
- unconfidentLacking self-assurance
- needyWanting in essentials
fragile · vulnerable · uncertain · hesitant · timid · defensive · approval-seeking · validation-seeking
Requiring external support
- beholdenOwing thanks or duty
- captiveOne held by force
- tiedFastened by knotting
- tetheredFastened by a line
locked-in · vulnerable · exposed · at-risk · susceptible · precarious · unsustainable · imbalanced
clingy
Tending to hold on
- needyWanting in essentials
- enmeshedCaught in complexity
- smotheringDepriving of air
possessive · attached · demanding · suffocating · clinging · leaning · reliant · parasitic · symbiotic · helpless
insecure
Lacking self-assurance
- anxiousTroubled by uncertainty
- fearfulFull of fright
- unconfidentLacking self-assurance
needy · fragile · vulnerable · uncertain · hesitant · timid · defensive · approval-seeking · validation-seeking · people-pleasing
reliant
Requiring external support
tethered · locked-in · vulnerable · exposed · at-risk · susceptible · precarious · unsustainable · imbalanced · monopolized
overdependentself-sufficient
Able to provide independently
independent · self-reliant · autonomous · self-supporting · self-sustaining
overdependentself-directed
Managing oneself without supervision
self-assured · inner-directed · secure · self-determining · individualistic