Recovery meetings happen all over the world in the rooms of church basements, recovery centers, hospitals, jails and prisons, recovery clubs and the homes of those in recovery. People have gathered in self-help groups for more than 85 years and over time, many different types of 12 step and non 12-step groups have formed. For many people, this is a primary tool in the process of recovery, but for others, in-person meetings can be difficult to attend or are not a safe option.
In places like Aroostook county and other rural areas here in Maine, meetings are hard to get to for those without transportation and where public transportation is not an option. Transportation isn’t always the thing stopping someone from attending a meeting ,as fear and anxiety can be a determining force in a person’s ability to go to a public meeting as they may need to keep their recovery secret.
Sickness, physical immobility, and hospitalizations were other factors that Ken Pomerance and Ron Tannebaum, two men in long term recovery, considered when they co-founded, created and tested the online recovery website called In The Rooms.
They understood the need for anonymity that many groups required, and created a platform where anyone could join an online meeting from the safety of their own home, their hotel room or even their hospital bed.
The site grew rapidly from word of mouth alone, much like the growth of in person self help groups.
In The Rooms believes in all paths of recovery and hosts meetings in everything from Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and other specialty 12-step recovery programs, food recovery programs, dual-diagnosis meetings, codependency groups, as well as a variety of blogs and articles. In the 12 years since its inception, the site has grown to over 130 live video meetings every week and has over 600,000 members worldwide.
In The Rooms has more than just meetings, with a variety of ways to connect to recovery resources and other people in recovery: blogs, articles, meeting finders, daily meditations, podcasts, speaker tapes, events calendars, message boards and more.
A whole section called “Getting Started in Recovery” has 2 guides dedicated to those in early recovery or for anyone curious about recovery. The first guide is for those seeking recovery and contains a lot of information on alcohol detoxification and what to expect in the first week and month of alcohol recovery. The second guide is for friends, family and allies.
In The Rooms has made support in recovery easy to access and private. The site has embraced that there are many ways to recover and has gathered all of the options into one easy location. The co-founders say they have received emails from people who have never gone to a face to face meeting who have gotten and stayed sober although their intent for the site is as a supplement to in person meetings. In The Rooms has been giving the gift of recovery to over half a million people, each in their own rooms.
