Pubdate: Mon, 07 Nov 2005
Source: New Jersey Herald (NJ)
Copyright: 2005, Quincy Newspapers, Inc
Contact:  http://www.njherald.com/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2162
Author: Anna Spiewak

REINVENTING LIVES AT ALINA LODGE

"There is a place where hope can become fact." That's the motto of 
Little Hill-Alina Lodge.

Jacki M. is living proof of that motto.

When she was first admitted to the long-term rehabilitation clinic in 
Blairstown for substance abuse 17 years ago, she was hopeless.

"I couldn't stay sober. I had legal, financial, career and 
relationship problems. For me it was an emotional bottom," said the 
48-year-old who works in Sussex County looking back in retrospect. "I 
looked in the mirror and hated the person staring back at me."

According to the facility's director of development, John B. Clark, 
it's people who have been to other short-term facilities and hit rock 
bottom that come to Alina Lodge. The 40-acre campus, which holds 95 
students, serves as a disciplined retreat for substance abusers. They 
are called "students," because they learn a new way of life. Alcohol, 
drugs, gambling, sex, eating disorders, whatever the addiction, the 
student is taught to conquer it.

Alina Lodge disallows cell phones, computers, gyms or other 
distractions that take focus away from recovery. Caffeine, tobacco 
and other mood-altering substances are prohibited, and there's a 
separation of males and females during the stay.

"The austere program is there to humble people and make them realize 
that (substance abuse) is a life-or-death situation," Clark said. 
"Everybody has the ability to get sober, what we do is give them the tools."

Jacki M. used those tools to reinvent her tumultuous life. The 
journey was long and arduous. She started drinking at age 17 and was 
doing drugs from cocaine to heroin in her 20s. By the time she came 
to Blairstown, she'd been through a number of 28-day treatment and 
detox centers.

It was the 1980s club scene era and Jacki was an attractive, educated 
professional living in New York City. She liked the party scene and 
the taste of alcohol. When others quit for the night and went home, 
Jacki still wanted to party. Substance use became a compulsion.

"I was a young budding alcoholic in the middle of Manhattan and I 
went a little crazy," she said. "It's so much fun at first, but then 
it just backfires. What used to keep you happy, flips on you."

The dark side of substance abuse was something she didn't expect. She 
had seen her parents drink socially and alcohol was glamorized in the media.

It wasn't until she couldn't hold a job and had to move back with her 
parents that she realized she'd gone too far.

Her father, who, ironically, was on the National Council of 
Alcoholism through his job, was referred to Alina Lodge. Jacki stayed 
there for a year and then at a halfway house for three months.

"(By that time) your body and brain are really sick of the alcohol. I 
was getting a lot of information, but it wouldn't go from the brain 
to the heart," she said.

What the facility gave her was time to regain hope and find a solid 
support group. She stayed put and saw others around her getting well.

Looking back, Jacki realizes the drugs and alcohol were a shield for 
her insecurity and shyness as a young woman. Today, a wife and mother 
with a steady job for 13 years, she has confidence without chemicals.

According to Jacki, the key is not only abstinence but a spiritual 
journey that continues throughout one's life.

"I'm not a recovered alcoholic, I'm a recovering alcoholic," she said.

For information about the Little Hill-Alina Lodge, visit its Web site 
at (http://www.alinalodge.org)www.alinalodge.org. or call (800) 575-6343.

[Sidebar]

Actor Speaks At Group's Fund-Raiser

Little Hill Alina Lodge, a long-term clinic for those suffering from 
substance abuse, accepts no government money, relying instead on 
philanthropy and fund-raisers. And it struggles to convince people 
that substance abuse is an illness afflicting all sectors of society.

"The disease of substance abuse is still not part of our national 
dialogue," said John B. Clark, the Blairstown facility's director of 
development. "It has a stigma attached, yet as a cancer it affects 
every socioeconomic class."

This year, Alina Lodge, which doesn't accept insurance for a 
patient's $215-a-day stay, landed an ally with the clout to address 
both challenges as the speaker at its Gratitude Gala.

Christopher Kennedy Lawford, an actor, activist and author, spoke 
Friday night about his own trials with drugs and alcohol at the 
lodge's annual fund-raiser held at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany.

Growing up as the son of Patricia Kennedy - the sister of RFK, JFK 
and Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts - and Peter, an actor father 
from the Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., 
Lawford felt the pressure of the public eye scrutinizing him from an early age.

He got hooked on LSD at age 13.

"Both of my uncles have been killed, my parents were divorced," the 
50-year-old said, alluding to the assassinations of then-President 
John F. Kennedy in 1963 and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy 
in 1968. "The world was a scary place and I was looking for a way out."

After surrendering to the substances completely and landing in a 
number of hospitals, Lawford realized in his 20's that it was time to 
get clean. With the help of a number of rehab centers, he got sober 
at age 30 and has kept it up for 19 1/2 years.

Lawford's 1997 memoir, "Symptoms of Withdrawal," was released last 
month in paperback. He is also coming out with a new film in December 
starring Anthony Hopkins titled "The World's Fastest Indian."

There are 22.5 million Americans aged 12 or older classified with 
past-year substance dependence or abuse (9.4 percent of the 
population), according to 2004 statistics from the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services. That number remained steady since 2002 and 
2003. Of these, 3.4 million were classified with dependence on or 
abuse of both alcohol and illicit drugs.

As the variety of chemical substances has grown, so has the lodge's 
number of clients, or "students," as they're known and the amount of 
time they stay at Alina, Clark said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman