Maintaining Your Boundaries During Recovery

With the holidays around the corner, you’re bound to be bombarded with questions and expectations. Your extended family might ask inappropriate questions about your treatment. Your friends might ask you to attend parties where substances are present. Your loved ones might ask you to give up valuable time in favor of holiday shenanigans. This all […]
Socializing Without Alcohol

For some of us, alcohol makes us extroverted, fun, and the life of the party. People around us do not know we are struggling with a crippling addiction. As men, we may feel the need to mask our pain by essentially functioning as free entertainment for the party or patrons at a bar. Once we […]
Benefits of Clean Eating During Recovery

Recovering from addiction doesn’t only mean recovering from substance use. It also includes recovering from a previous lifestyle. During your client’s addiction, chances are they didn’t take care of their body. They might not have eaten foods that were good for them, and they probably weren’t overly concerned with a balanced diet. However, many substances […]
Relationships and Recovery: Choosing Yourself, Choosing Your Partner

While in active addiction, the choices and decisions on how we spend our time, money, and efforts are all hinged on our drug of choice. As we enter recovery, it can be difficult to learn how to be an attentive partner and a caring friend. Since we have spent years and years catering only to […]
The Benefits of Long Term Treatment for Clients

Jaywalker Lodge’s programs last a long time compared to stays at other treatment centers. Our multi-phased journey of healing can last anywhere from six months to a year. Many ask why our programs last for that long while some treatment centers keep clients for a maximum of three weeks. At Jaywalker, we believe that the length […]
What Are 7 Things I Shouldn’t Say to Someone in Recovery?

Recovery is a time for healing after treatment. However, people in your life – such as their loved ones or peers – can sometimes say hurtful things that make the process harder. It’s important to try to avoid saying these things to your peers or loved ones in recovery. Here’s a list of phrases that […]
The Hero’s Journey and Its Role in Your Client’s Recovery

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey has influenced stories from Star Wars to Harry Potter, but its familiar arc can be used as a metaphor for your client’s inner transformation as they battle their addiction and come out of treatment a stronger person. What is the Hero’s Journey, and how can it be applied to your client’s […]
Why Does Jaywalker Allow Our Clients to Interact With the Community?

One stereotype of recovery centers is that they are places where people hide to get better. People view recovery as a time where a person with addiction sequesters themself from society for treatment. The fear is that interacting with “regular people” will only tempt the person with addiction. However, the truth is that isolation from […]
Why Is Service So Important in 12-Step Programs?

Service is a word used often in 12-Step spaces, but what does it really mean? Service is a concept we embrace in our programs at Jaywalker Lodge. We think of service when we interact with our local community in Carbondale, but we also consider what it means to serve the recovery community at large. Here […]
Do I Need to Believe in God to Succeed in AA?

One of the potential barriers for those who attend 12-Step meetings is how spirituality is defined. People might have experienced issues in the past that might make them apprehensive about participating in AA or opening up to the 12-Steps. Others might feel like they aren’t being genuine if they feel like they have to hide […]



