RecoverYourLife.com - or RYL as it's fondly known - started life back in 1999 very unlike it is today. First conceived by 'The Godthief' - it was a discussion site built around the idea of Self-Destruction, in all its forms. I first started with RYL on the first day - as it was I that was hired to build it.

Things started slowly and although not many people came by with the intention of in-depth discussion - we soon realised the site was being hit upon by a different sort of person. Our totally free, open and non-judgmental discussion ground became the safe haven for a small pocket of self-harmers who had long searched the internet for somewhere they felt they belonged. It seemed they had found it.

Through time constraints on James Whitwell, aka 'The Godthief' - I was given a loose rein and the creative freedom to steer the site towards being there for more people who needed us. It soon became both a hobby and passion of mine - as I became more and more aware that there was a hole in the internet that many people badly needed to be filled.

James Whitwell then tragically died - and the site's future was thrown into the balance - But far from letting it slip - I felt it important to James memory to do him, and the site's ideals proud.

The rest they say is history - but through a great deal of hard work, and passionate dedication I have been able to turn our little misfit corner of the internet into what it is today - one of the most thriving, non-judgmental and broad-minded communities on the Internet. I hope you are proud James, God bless.

RYL ideals are that no one should be alone in what they go through - while there are no firm answers as to the cause or the cure to Self-Harm - RYL has proved that communication is key to a better sense of wellbeing, and in many, many cases...recovery. RecoverYourLife.com - the new face of RYL, brings with it far more community interaction - giving anyone who needs it the support, companionship, understanding and advice they need, whenever they need it.

RecoverYourLife.com is totally free to those who use it - and will stay that way - I am 100% committed to there being something everyone can trust and rely on, a safe and secure environment of support and understanding - available for free, 24/7, every day of the year.

Please find below a timeline of RYL

1999

October:

-James Whitwell forms RuinYourLife.com - RYL starts here in its first form. This is the very early stage of Ruin. He had plans to make it a website for the discussion on the "art of self-destruction". He hires Harley Molesworth to build/design the website.

- Meetings - Harley has meetings with James about the structuring, foundation and basic layout/content needed to be thought about before Ruin could continue to be designed.

November:

- Harley begins to start building on Ruin before Christmas hit the scenes.

December:

- Ruinyourlife goes online.

- The previous introduction page;

2000

June:

- Guest book A guest book was introduced to Ruin, so people could leave their comments/ thoughts etc.

- Alternative introduction page;

2002

September:

- James Whitwell unexpectedly passes away.
- James Whitwell’s book gets published - His book was titled ‘Godtheif’. The publishing happened on the day of his funeral.
- Due to the death of James, Harley decides to close RYL for a month. This is the only time RYL has ever been offline.

November:

- After the death of James and having the black screen to help determine where RYL goes from there, Harley decides that RYL has to stay open and there forth he takes the site under his wing and becomes the webmaster. RYL starts morphing from a website containing pages of content into much greater things
- The forms on ezboards was founded. This gave the members the ability to comunicate with one another.

- The chat rooms were founded.

2003 

- The site at this stage was seeing 25,000 different people per week!

April 

- RYL shop opens - The ever popular ryl braclet starts to be sold

2004 

March:

- Harley changes the name from 'Ruinyourlife' to 'Recoveryourlife' also known as Version 2 (V2)
The name change was aimed at making RYL more recovery based and encouraging people to support each other rather than encourage or enable Self harm. The website is also expanded to include distractions.

c.2003 - 2004:

- The self injury warning label was writen by DAA.

2005

- The Supporters were created.
- The First Aid Advisers were unofficially created.

November:
- The Channel 4 documentary 'The Cutting Club' on self-harm that featured several RYL members was aired in the UK.

2006

- The E-Zine was created.

2007

Early 2007:
- The Main Site Reorganization team was created (MSRO)
This was to help develop the new site. They were originally created to help develop v.2 but then also helped sort out v.3 along with some other staff.

March:
- RYL V3 opened to the staff.

June:
- RYL V3 opens to the public
With several new and redesigned boards, such as 2 Veterans boards, the First Aid board , Mental Health Discussion and support etc. V3 allowed for a lot more features, such as journals, customisable profiles etc.

- The First Aiders team was founded

Over the years people had noticed the need for first aid advice on RYL, and while there were people available to give advice through-out RYL's journey, it wasn't organized. A forum dedicated to first aid questions was launched with V3, and is currently staffed by qualified First Aid Advisors.

2008

August:
- The RYL 3 legged race occurred.
Marking this to be the first RYL organised fund-raising event.

Late 2008:

- The Community team goes live.

2009

October

The Binging Overeating & Related Issues Support board was formed as a subforum of the Eating Disorder forum

2010

August

The Community Team consulted with the community to create a new set of trigger labels

With thanks to Freedom Fighter and the Community Team