The Lost Child: Silent Survival

Another role in an addictive family is called a lost child. In that situation, you deal, the person is quiet. They stay in the background. They don't make a lot of noise or drama. Maybe they're reading, maybe they're playing video games. Maybe they're just minding their business. Maybe they just stay gone all the time. Their way of managing it is to fall into the background to try not to interact with it, to try to stay away from it and avoid it as much as possible and just fly under the radar to not get any attention, to not cause any waves. And that's the way that a lost child is protecting themselves. You don't always see that as a dysfunction. You might see that as, oh my gosh, they're such a good student. They're always back there studying. Or they're just introverted and they're quiet. They're never causing trouble, they never get upset.