If you wish a handsome prince will come one day and relieve you from all your sufferings and miseries, maybe you are suffering from Cinderella Syndrome or Cinderella Complex. It refers to a psychological disorder in which a woman fears true independence and secretly expects a hero, knight or prince will come to take care of her. Women with Cinderella Complex have the signs of lack of self-esteem, confidence, anxiety, inability to function in the workplace. Check out here the tips to overcome it.

What Is the Cinderella Complex?

Cinderella Complex is a veiled desire to be saved by others, especially heroes or men. Author- Colette Dowling first used this concept in her book titled “The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence ''. This book was published in 1981. Here she feathers out the idea that women are lifted up to be dependent, and this insentient need to be secured and saved leads to a constant inclination to vandalize success and happiness.

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Like Cinderella, the sufferer of Cinderella Complex believes that she needs an outside force to save the day in danger, deeming her own intellect and hard work. In fact, this term is applicable to anyone of any gender, who waits for other people to be saved in lieu of their own ability to fight. Cinderella Complex can happen mentally, financially, or emotionally if you want someone else to take care of you.

Symptoms that You Have Cinderella Syndrome

Sometimes it is seen that even independent women may experience signs of Cinderella complex. Although there is no absolute list of Cinderella complex, a woman with this complex may:

-       Depend on her partner’s choices and decisions

-       Feel anxious and nervous living on her own

-       Find it tough or absurd to make major life decisions on her own

-       Feeling difficult to support herself or hold a job

-       Like to play the traditional role of homemaker and mother

-       Prefer to have a romantic partner

-       Carry a strong desire always to be taken care of

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Some women with Cinderella complex feel that their parents mistreat or neglect them. They also compare their life with fairytales. These women may wish for a rescuer—a Prince Charming—to arrive and take care of them.

Why is Cinderella Complex Harmful to Women?

Cinderella Complex is harmful to women firstly because it does not permit girls or women to reach their personal goals in acquiring a solid, professional career. Moreover, women or girls with Cinderella Complex do not develop their abilities beyond taking care of the family members or raising their children. Ultimately, they become helpless individuals.

Society or customs are also responsible for growing this complex in women. Girls have the right to get higher education but when a girl wishes to go abroad to take higher education, society doesn’t take it easy.

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The issue of safety is another bar on women’s path of development. In the less developed countries, many young women are forced to get married early. It is thought that marriage will complete a woman and give her a respectful identity. This way, society kills your dreams and potentiality to become successful and great. When a girl wants to be different, she as well as her family has to suffer. Education is considered here merely as a certificate to get a good spouse.

Women with Cinderella Complex wish to escape from responsibilities. They long for independence but their all wishes are undermined by fear. Most women expect that men will meet all of their needs so that they can run away from all types of duties and responsibilities.

Some women convince themselves by saying that men’s decisions are more important and significant than their own and so they think men have more power to make all decisions. No doubt, women need protection, security, and affection from men but if any woman feels like she cannot continue without the help of men, then she is suffering from Cinderella Complex.

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How can women get rid of Cinderella Symptoms: Tips to overcome

Aiming to tackle the Cinderella Complex, many modern women are taking the initiative to relate earnestly to their psychological spirit, to scrutinize the happenings and beliefs of the truths, their childhoods, and the self-illusions of their parents, the gentle but unavoidable ordering of their own belief method. They can control only themselves but not their parents' decisions or choices. Here are some tips for overcoming Cinderella Complex.

Know Yourself

If you want to overcome the hidden Cinderella Complex inside your mind, first make sure you expand your knowledge about your strengths and weaknesses. Besides, try to find out what is good for you. When you know yourself better, you will be able to improve and develop your strengths. Thus, you will not be required to depend on others for your own happiness.

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Grow Confidence

There is no alternative way to grow your self-confidence to equip yourself to achieve your dream. Confidence can enable you to stand against the bars on your path instead of waiting for others to protect you. To gain confidence you have to gain knowledge, do hard work and trust in your own potential.

Increase Connectivity

You can be free from this Cinderella complex by growing your connectivity with independent women. In today’s world, women are leaving traces of their talents in diverse sectors like science, technology, business, farming, innovation, etc.

You can mix with some successful women of your target industry. With the help of social networking platforms you can get connected with many talented women. You can follow them. Taking inspiration from those successful women you can also do something great in your life. 

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Take Action

Motivate yourself in the way that there is nothing to gain without risk and failure in this world. You need to remember that failing does not mean the end of the world. Failure is another key to success. Always try to keep yourself busy with prospective activities. The key to success is to slowly learn how to manage the risk and failure. And, thus you can actively dare to act. First, start by taking the courage to take small steps and slowly learn to take bigger steps.

Be Self-dependent

Self-dependency is essential to relieve girls and women from the Cinderella Complexity. Proper education and skills can help a woman to become economically independent. Thus, she can step towards being an independent person and minimize her tendency to be dependent on her male partner.

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Bottom Line

In today’s world, a woman can achieve anything if she is confident, educated and skilled. However, sometimes tendencies like Cinderella Complex may hinder the potentials of women to attain success and development. If you are suffering from this complexity, this is the time to get rid of it. Our above-mentioned tips and suggestions can help you to avoid Cinderella Syndrome.