June 15, 2020

The Benefits of DBT

Posted by Pat S in Alumni
The Benefits of DBT

Dialectical-behavioral therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy that enhances more basic forms of cognitive therapy. The main benefits of DBT are learning to live in the moment, building and strengthening relationships, emotional balance, and healthy mechanisms for coping with stressors. Originally developed for the enhanced treatment of people with borderline personality disorder, DBT has shown remarkable utility in aiding in the treatment of people with chemical dependency, substance abuse, and other self-destructive behaviors. The benefits of DBT alone can help improve and enhance the journey of recovery for many individuals. DBT at Jaywalker Lodge At Jaywalker Lodge, we believe in treating the whole person. DBT fits right in with our multi-modal clinical approach and is well-utilized by our multidisciplinary staff. DBT complements our well-rounded and effective daily itinerary as well. We focus on helping chronic relapsers – people who struggle to maintain long-term recovery, despite their deep desire…

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June 13, 2020

You Have Permission to Be Hopeful

Posted by Pat S in Alumni
You Have Permission to Be Hopeful

It may sound strange to be told that you have permission to be hopeful, but it’s true. Giving yourself the allowance to feel and accept hope can have a tremendous impact on your life – and the lives of others around you – in more ways than you ever thought possible. For many of us who find ourselves waylaid by drug and alcohol addiction, hope can become an impossible or untrusted thing. It can be hard to have hope when we are lost to ourselves. It can seem pointless to have any hope at all without knowing if we will ever be free of our addictions. Then we find Jaywalker Lodge and the program of recovery, and we take the 12-Steps. We learn that we can take action to right the wrongs of our past and finally be free of them. But even after all this, feeling hope – true…

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June 11, 2020

What Can I Do if Someone I Love May Be an Addict?

Posted by Pat S in Recovery
What Can I Do if Someone I Love May Be an Addict

You are not alone. Many parents, spouses, children, and friends know and love someone who is an alcoholic or an addict. Whatever your relationship is to your loved one who suffers from this disease, please know that there is help close at hand. It’s important that you don’t lose hope for yourself or your loved one. With millions of people living with alcoholism or addiction, there are many places to reach out to and many ways to get help. It is a painful and often heartbreaking thing to love an alcoholic or addict – but there is always hope. Asking for help is the first step for you both. There are many people who have been through exactly what you are going through now. They have come out on the other side happier and more at peace. There are also many people who have suffered from the same disease as…

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June 9, 2020

How We Talk To Ourselves Matters

Posted by Pat S in Insights
How We Talk To Ourselves Matters

It’s apparent to almost anyone who interacts with others on a daily basis that how we talk to other people is important. It matters – the words we say and how we say them. If we aren’t paying attention, our words can easily cause conflict, misunderstanding, or hurt. Luckily, the 12-Steps teach us very well how to take care of our words and actions regarding others. It is easy to see, with time and 12-Step work, how the principles of the 12-Steps and the actions they suggest can repair broken or strained relationships and help us forge new, healthy relationships. Indeed, one of the major focuses of recovery, and the 12-Steps, is to help us have and maintain healthy relationships with others. Many of these relationship tools can be applied inwardly as well – to explore how we talk to ourselves. Just as we must act and speak with concern,…

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June 7, 2020

The Importance of Continuity of Care

Posted by Pat S in Alumni
The Importance of Continuity of Care

Arresting active addiction is a necessary prerequisite for beginning life in recovery, and it can happen in rehabilitation facilities. Yet getting physically sober is not the same as beginning and maintaining a life in recovery. That is where the Jaywalker model and the importance of continuing care come into play. Most of the men we deal with are no strangers to having their addiction physically stopped, whether in a hospital or otherwise. They are also frequently familiar with picking up a drink or drug again shortly afterward – no matter how badly they don’t want to. Sobriety is a physical condition, but recovery is a life-changing experience that makes a huge difference in the repeating pattern of attempts and relapse. At Jaywalker Lodge, we aim to identify the causes of chronic relapse and then address them. Our programs combine to form an available pathway for the willing to walk into…

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June 5, 2020

Expanding Your Sober Life

Posted by Pat S in Alumni
Expanding Your Sober Life

Many people are under the mistaken impression that a life in recovery is dull, boring, and full of tiresome work. We often fear that the fun ends when the drugs and alcohol go away. Let’s think about that realistically. Odds are the fun had stopped long before we got sober. Now we are sober – and a dull, empty life is NOT what awaits us. The Big Book clearly says, “we are not a glum lot…we absolutely insist on enjoying life.” There is so much to enjoy about life, all on its own. Recovery at Jaywalker Lodge can help us see our lives through new eyes. We can begin to see all there is to enjoy and be grateful for. Life still has the ebbs and flows it always did, but now we can experience each moment of life with peace, joy, and a desire for understanding. There are, however,…

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June 1, 2020

Rediscovering Yourself

Posted by Pat S in Recovery
Rediscovering Yourself

Life is a journey, and for those of us who were addicted to drugs and alcohol, recovery is an incredible part of this whole adventure of being alive. Once, we were barely clinging to life. We were wrecked by our alcoholism and addiction. We missed out on many important parts of our lives, we let relationships deteriorate, and we lost ourselves. For many of us in recovery, we find that our personal development was stunted by our disease. We usually discover that some aspect of us – our personality, or skill set, or emotions – stopped growing right around the time that we were taken over by alcoholism and addiction. Here at Jaywalker Lodge, you can start growing yourself again. Rediscovery is a Gift, Not a Burden Sometimes this realization can be disheartening. We are doing so much 12-Step work, and then we realize we may have even more growing…

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May 31, 2020

Fully Immerse Yourself in Recovery

Posted by Pat S in Lifestyle, Recovery
Fully Immerse

Recovery and meaningful sobriety are not processes that happen in isolation. A facility like Jaywalker Lodge is likely the place where an alcoholic and/or addict is introduced to recovery, but the activities, tools, processes, and healing therapies they learn should not be left there. If the recovery process is begun but then left behind, it is highly likely that the one who sought sobriety will have to come seeking it again. It is important to understand that recovery is not a punishment for addiction or a treatment like antibiotics. Recovery is the gift of a chance to live life fully, happily, and freely – and it is most effective when the addict is fully immersed in all it has to offer. A Daily Choice We shouldn’t take a daily multivitamin just every so often, or when we aren’t feeling so great. If we do, those helpful vitamins – while still…

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May 27, 2020

How Can I Stay Connected in Times Like These?

Posted by Pat S in Alumni, Uncategorized
Staying Connected

There’s no doubting that times are strange, and even sometimes scary for everyone. Whether in or out of recovery, the world definitely feels upside down right now. People feel separated and apart from each other in ways they’ve never experienced before. It can be an especially trying time for those in recovery. We can’t get to meetings, our coffee shop fellowship, or even do step work face-to-face. If you are an addict with a tendency to relapse in the past despite an honest desire to recover – what we here at Jaywalker Lodge refer to as a Jaywalker (based on the “Jaywalker Parable” from Alcoholics Anonymous) – the isolation we are all facing today may feel even more challenging. Jaywalkers are addicts who, after a treatment experience, know all the right things to say but continue to make self-destructive decisions. They are the ones who had a taste of what…

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May 25, 2020

Surrender to Win

Posted by Pat S in Recovery
Surrender to win

“Surrender to win” is a phrase that doesn’t make much sense at first glance. If we do understand it, it’s usually received as a pretty unpalatable proposition. As recovery literature says, “Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically none of us…” The literature also says that defiance is the chief characteristic of most alcoholics. So it makes perfect sense that we are resistant to this spiritual maxim at first – and for some of us, resistant for a very long time. It probably won’t take too long for us to examine our lives before recovery and realize there are few instances of our resistance benefitting anybody, if there are any such instances at all. With such a track record, why do so many of us balk at surrender? Why don’t we see it as the bridge to freedom that it truly is? Probably because we are intelligent people, who yearn…

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