The Wendy Syndrome: people who need the approval of others.

The Wendy Syndrome is the need to satisfy another person due to fear of rejection.

We have already talked in another article about the characteristics of the Peter Pan Syndrome. Behind someone who suffers from this syndrome, there is always a person taking care of him.

The Wendy Syndrome

That person is Wendy, and has an imperious need to satisfy the other person, especially if it is his or her partner or children.. 

Examples of the Wendy Syndrome The Wendy Syndrome would be the parent who practically does the homework for his or her child, who wakes him or her up every morning so that he or she is not late for school even though he or she is old enough to do it alone, who always tries to make life easy for those around him or her, or the housewife who assumes all the responsibilities at home so that the husband and children do not have to do it; or a member of a couple who assumes all the duties and makes the decisions and also justifies the informality of his or her partner to the others.

Characteristics of the Wendy Syndrome

To make it clearer, let's see the characteristics of a person with Wendy Syndrome are:

• Feels indispensable to others.

• Understands love as sacrifice and resignation.

• Feels the need to care for and protect others by assuming a maternal figure. They end up assuming the role of father or mother to their partner.

• Avoid at all costs making people around them angry or upset.

• Constantly tries to make others happy.

• Seeks always to please those around her.

• Insists on getting things done and taking responsibility instead of the other person.

• Continually apologizes for everything she has not done or did not know how to do even when the responsibility is not hers.

• Becomes depressed due to lack of attention and depends on social acceptance.

Need for security

So far this description may remind us of our mothers and fathers and the reader may feel that this is not negative as it all seems so nice and selfless. nice and altruisticWendy does not do this out of genuine pleasure, but rather this set of behaviors is done out of fear of rejection. fear of rejectionShe does this out of fear of rejection, the need to feel accepted and supported, and the fear that no one will love her. What, in short, leads them to be exaggeratedly servile to others is a need for security. need for security.

Emotional dependence

Another negative aspect of this behavioral disorder is that Wendy Syndrome sufferers have difficulty controlling their own course in life, so they focus on trying to control other people's lives. A Wendy mother is also likely to have a child with Peter Pan Syndrome.

A person with this syndrome is unlikely to recognize that this is their reality and their diagnosis, although it is an unestablished clinical entity. is an unestablished clinical entityThe diagnosis, although it is not an established clinical entity, is made because people come to the office feeling "burned out", oversaturated or overwhelmed. Those who suffer from this syndrome go to the specialist of their own free will.

As in PPS, the origin of the syndrome is often found in the sufferer's family past, in which the person felt alienated and unprotected, so that in adulthood he/she compensates for the lack of direction and protection by assuming the role of the absent parents or the parents he/she wished to have. And unlike PPS, Wendy's Syndrome affects more females than malesThis may be due to cultural and educational factors.