REACH OUT RECOVERY, INC.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA

Reach Out Recovery (ROR) is a 501C3 nonprofit founded in 2011 to fill the need of the 120 million adults and children, extended families, employers, co-workers, and friends whose lives have been changed forever by addiction. ROR is the most viewed and trusted nonprofit media organization in the recovery space, ranking in the top 10,000 websites in the nation. ROR is a recovery portal for unbiased, reliable behavior and process addiction information, daily news relevant to recovery issues, daily recovery support, and original content by addiction professionals and those who have traveled the recovery journey. The mission of ROR is to provide daily content for recovery readiness and ongoing support to lift the stigma from addiction and behavior disorders and normalize the recovery journey. Being the child of an addict is complicated, and we can’t always verbalize how so. Even if we’ve had enough therapy to buy our psychiatrist a boat, we still may not even know we are dysfunctional. Bear with us as we continue the work of figuring it all out. 2. We Are Afraid A lot of the time. And the fear is hidden — sometimes very deeply. We are afraid of the future, specifically the unknown. The unknown was our reality for many years. We may not have known where our parents were, or when they’d return. We might not have known if there would be dinner or drunkenness. While we may know now that those things aren’t likely to happen, that doesn’t make life any less terrifying. This fear may express itself in a number of ways, everything from anger to tears. We probably won’t recognize it as fear. 3. We are afraid (part 2: children) We are afraid to have children and when we do, we are afraid to wreck them, like we are wrecked. If we can acknowledge our own damage, we definitely don’t want to inflict it on anyone else. We don’t really know how to be a parent. It’s actually panic inducing. We will second-guess everything we do and may over-parent for fear of under-parenting. 5. We Are Controlling Because we don’t know normal, and because we are afraid, we may often seek to exert control over anything and everything around us. This can manifest itself in our homes, our work, or our relationships. We may often be inflexible. We don’t usually see this as dysfunction. We will likely frame this as a strength. 6. We Are Perfectionists We are terribly critical of ourselves — of every detail. Because of this internal dialogue of self-loathing, we are often sensitive to criticism from others. This is deeply-seated fear of rejection. Please pause, if you are able, and choose your words with compassion. We may have lacked for love. We need it. 8. We Are In Charge Of Everything — Even If We Don’t Want To Be (But We Always Want To Be) Constantly. Our self-esteem is exceptionally low. Our addicted parents were unable to provide the love and nurturing we required to form secure attachment. As such, we will seek that in all our relationships going forward. All of them. This need for approval manifests itself in generally self-sacrificing behavior. We will give to our own detriment. Please remind us to take care of ourselves, too. We want to be perfect, but we can’t because we are paralyzed by fear. We want to control our surroundings, but we desperately want to be taken care of. We desperately want to be self-assured, because we know that’s the key to the control we seek, but we can’t be self-assured because we grew up believing we had no worth. We don’t mean to be, we probably don’t even know we are. You can contact us to sponsor a page on our site, memorialize someone you’ve lost, congratulate someone on a recovery mission, or help with our fundraising drive! Even if you’re just looking to say hello, we’ll write you back!