March 17, 2022

Your Guide to Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Sober

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni
Your Guide To Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Sober

Whether you are celebrating your Irish heritage or having a good time with your friends, the St. Patrick’s Day holiday is known for its access to excessive drinking. If you are sober, this time of year can feel stressful and dangerous. You might feel tempted to go to a bar with friends, or you might feel uncomfortable around so many intoxicated people. However, it is still possible to celebrate this holiday without going to the bar. Here are some tips to allow you to enjoy the holiday while still honoring your sobriety. Have a Traditional Irish Dinner Party You do not need to go to a bar to have corned beef and hash. Instead, host a dinner party with your sober friends. There are plenty of traditional Irish recipes that are fun to cook and fantastic to eat. Try baking soda bread, or cook a steaming pot of Irish stew….

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March 3, 2022

What Can I Do if I’m Feeling Alone?

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni

Isolation can be detrimental to your emotional health. If you have struggled with addiction, it may be appealing to use substances to cope with loneliness. If you feel lonely, there are ways in which you can improve your mood and feel more connected. Isolation During Covid Shutdowns and social distancing have loneliness to be a common experience. Covid regulations that seem never-ending amidst the cold weather only worsen things. While these safety measures during the pandemic were put in place to keep you physically safe, there is a toll that isolation takes on your mental health. The constant isolation during the pandemic has taken a significant toll on the addiction recovery community. Relapses during 2020 were high, and record-breaking overdoses were recorded while the United States battled an opioid epidemic, along with a global pandemic. Isolation is indeed a significant enemy to sobriety. Addiction thrives with isolation. Many struggling with…

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March 2, 2022

Preparing for a Rainy Day

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni
Preparing For A Rainy Day

There are days when things feel extra difficult. You might wake up one morning and feel like you have a massive cloud over your head. Or it might even be a literal rainy day. When these moments occur, there are some things you can do to make your situation a little bit better. Reach Out to Your Support System Sometimes low moods can be triggered by loneliness. If you are having an off day, call a close friend. Reach out to a family member. Send a message to your therapist about your day. Do not feel as though you are a burden if you lean on your support system. That is why they are here, and most likely, they would expect you to do the same for them.  If a person in your support system is not available, do not take it personally, as they may just be enforcing their…

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January 15, 2022

How to Help a Child With Addiction

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni

Many people associate addictions with adults, but children can become addicted too. Addiction tends to run in the family, and while you may have tried to keep your child safe, it isn’t always possible. Teen addiction is still a prevalent issue caused by many factors, from environmental to hereditary. Here’s how to help your child get the treatment they need. Why Is My Teen Addicted? There are many factors that play into teen and child addiction. Whether it be peer pressure, curiosity, rebellion, a way to cope with stress/anxiety, or expectations, there are many reasons why teens and children choose to take substances that develop into addiction. It isn’t necessarily because they are “bad” or “acting out.” In fact, many teens don’t try substances to anger parents, but rather because their brains aren’t as developed as adult brains. This doesn’t say anything about their intelligence, but rather their brain development…

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November 4, 2021

On the Mend and Making Amends: The Step Nine Struggle

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni
man in long sleeve shirt hugging a friend

Making amends can be incredibly difficult and uncomfortable. How do we navigate potentially opening old wounds with old friends and family members? For many, this step can seem counterintuitive to growth in recovery. However, it is a necessary part of the process of working the steps. Step Nine allows us to let go of our past transgressions while also working to mend old relationships and provide closure for ourselves and the people we harmed while in active addiction.  Breaking Down Step Nine According to the Big Book, Step Nine is defined as the following “Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” So, we’ve made our list, checked it twice, and now we need to make amends with those that we can. This step is particularly distressing for many people. Reliving our past harms might give rise to harsh situations…

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November 3, 2021

Newfound Sobriety and Loneliness: How We Can Build Better and Healthier Friendships

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni
depressed man sitting in dark room

Shortly after we enter recovery, it can seem like we’ve lost a lot of friends in the process. Our “party” groups, the people we associated with, and the environments that we spent time in suddenly become triggers to avoid. However, it is important to remember that these friendships were built on the house of cards that is addiction. A friendship that is contingent on the presence of a substance is not a friendship at all. This temporary “loneliness” can be triggering for many people during the early stages of recovery. Our day-to-day lives may seem a little slower, more stable, and more predictable. These are all good things! However, our intuitive, kneejerk reaction to removing ourselves from certain environments and limiting contact with specific friend groups for our own health can be difficult to manage. Reentering the World in Recovery  One of the more difficult aspects of leaving a treatment…

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November 2, 2021

Forget the FOMO: Adjusting to Sober Life After the Program

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni
thoughtful middle-aged man looking up

Whether you just completed an inpatient stay or an outpatient program, adjusting to life outside of treatment can be difficult. It is important that we try our best not to romanticize or obsess over the “Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO) if we see people out partying or posting on social media about it. We know that life and we left it behind for a healthier one! That being said, learning how to have fun without drugs or alcohol is one of the many lessons that we learn on the road to recovery. As people in recovery, we are constantly learning good habits and unlearning bad ones. For us, fun and substance use are mutually exclusive, despite the messages we may be exposed to after we leave a program and reenter daily life. Let’s Be Honest: We Aren’t Missing Out on Much After completing an inpatient or outpatient program, we reenter…

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September 30, 2021

How To Handle Making Mistakes

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni

We’re all only human, and all human beings make mistakes. Everybody. Sometimes mistakes happen because we’re unprepared or because we didn’t think. Sometimes it’s not even really our fault. In those cases, we still have to take responsibility for our mistakes. But we must also remember that everyone from every walk of life makes mistakes.  Whatever kind of mistakes we have made, or are making, there are plenty of things we can do to capitalize on the lessons our mistakes can provide us. We may even be able to do some things to set right our little wrongs.  Be Gentle The first thing to remember when it comes to handling the mistakes we’ve made is to be gentle — not only gentle to ourselves, but especially to those who have been affected by our mistakes. We must treat everyone involved with kindness.  Making mistakes is never fun, but each time…

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September 10, 2021

Men’s Issues: Sex Inventory

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni

At Jaywalker Lodge, we deal exclusively with men in recovery. By holding strong to our focus, we have uncovered a host of common problems and situations that affect the men in our community. Suffice to say, many things come up and keep coming up. We refer to these common scenarios as “men’s issues” and continue to address as many of these concerns as we can. It’s our goal to not only provide men with a safe space to learn and grow in recovery, but to provide them with helpful resources and support when they face struggles. This month, we are delving into the sex inventory and all that encompasses. The sex inventory is not merely a list of sexual history or encounters. In reality, the sex inventory is a vital component of the personal inventory we all do in the 4th-Step. The entire inventory consists of resentments, fears, and yes,…

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September 1, 2021

The Twelve Steps: A Solution for Everything

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Alumni

For those of us in recovery, it might seem pretty obvious to say that the Twelve Steps are a solution. Of course they are! Even when we are very new to recovery, the Steps are presented to us as a solution to the deadly disease of alcoholism and addiction. We are told right away that these steps are our solution. Of course, many of us have a hard time swallowing that until we get some firsthand experience with the Twelve Steps ourselves. Once we have begun the process, we begin to see the truth and we come to know the Steps as the solution to our alcoholism and addiction. But is this the extent of problems that the Twelve Steps can help us solve? Hardly. In fact, for most of those who have been active in recovery for some time, the Steps come to be known as the solution for…

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