Lionrock Phase 5 Homework- Graduation Assignment

Lionrock Phase 5 Homework Discharge Plan Objectives: Once completed by prepared to share these assignments with your primary therapist and your group. You will be asked to e-mail or text a copy of these assignments to your primary counselor for your client chart. 5.1 Describe in detail what your Recovery will look like for the first month following discharge from Lionrock treatment. Be very specific and use concrete behavioral terms. Describe what you will do, when you will do it, where you will do it, with whom you will do it, and why you will do it. Consider all that you’ve learned about yourself throughout your course of treatment and try and include Recovery activities that address your specific issues. Use the attached weekly schedule as a visual planning aid. Develop a set of Recovery activities that you will be able to stick with for the entire month without changing. Remember that addiction hurts us Biologically, Psychologically, Socially and Spiritually, so our Recovery needs to promote healing in all of those areas. 5.2 Complete the Phase Five Personal Recovery Plan form, identifying areas of your life that will be addressed in your Discharge Plan. 5.3 Present your Recovery Plan and Calendar to your group for feedback and suggestions. Personal Recovery Plan Drug and Alcohol Use Where are you now in your dosage of drugs and alcohol? I take 20mg Lexapro daily. I have never taken illegal drugs in any form. I currently do not drink alcohol and have been sober for 103 days. Where would you like to be? Exactly where I am with long-term sobriety. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? I plan post-Lionrock support of 4 weeks in Lionrock Bridge Group, followed by 8 weeks of employer-provided Counseling, in conjunction with regular AA attendance. Social Support Where are you now in your social support system? My social support system is greatly improved from where it was when I entered Lionrock. This was a big problem for me. I had no personal connections where I worked and I lived near my workplace in isolation. My relationship with my family was intermittent, and sometimes distant. Now, my social support system is much stronger. I have renewed and strengthened relationships with old friends in my hometown, reestablishing those relationships on a non-drinking basis. I have established local supportive relationships with people in my workplace and with many people in AA through regular attendance in my AA Home Group. In addition, my Recovery has helped to strengthen my family relationships and I keep up regular connections with my family members. In addition, my wife stays with at me near my workplace (South Carolina) most weeks, and we spend weekends together at our home in Kentucky. Where would you like to be? I am in a good place with my social support system, but I want to continue strengthening those important relationships with family, friends back home and friends near my workplace. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? I need to continue to strengthen these relationships by thinking more and more of others. I need to continue making more and better contact with my family and focus that communication on them and not myself. In my work relationships, I need to become more open in those relationships and work on giving more than taking. In my relationships with friends I need to continue to deal with them honestly. For relationships in AA, I need to begin to work with newcomers and make them feel welcomed, eventually moving into a mentor relationship when I have a longer period of sobriety. Physical Health How is your physical health? My physical condition is much better than it was when I entered Lionrock. I used to be tired all the time and always felt like I needed to sleep. In addition, I had high blood pressure, sometimes as high as 150/ 95. Now, I have energy like I did 20 years ago, and I need much less sleep. I’m back to sleeping about 6-7 hours a night. I used to struggle to stay up until 8:30- 9 each night, and now I go to bed at 10:30-11. Best of all, my Blood Pressure is 123/78. I have not gained weight during my recovery, but I am 20 pounds overweight and my doctor says my bad cholesterol is on the high side. Where would you like to be? I would like to lose about 20 pounds and have my cholesterol down to the normal range. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? I have registered for Figure Weight Loss Program at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Edgewood, Kentucky. I have a 2 hour evaluation on October 9 and meet regularly with a Physician, Dietician and exercise specialist to advise me on weight loss. Losing another 20 pounds and reducing consumption of red meat a fried foods will reduce my cholesterol. Family Relations Where are you now in your relationship with your family members? My relationship with family members is very much improved since I entered Lionrock. My alcoholism had place a great strain on all of my family relationship as my drunken, erratic behavior had really damaged everyone in my family. Those relationships have started to improve significantly improved as I achieved longer periods of sobriety. While there is still repair work to be done, our relationships improve every day. Where would you like to be? I would like to continue mending and rebuilding my relationships with my family members. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? Most of all, I need to continue being sober and rebuild trust. I can also help rebuild and restore relationships by communicating openly and honestly and working to think continually more about other people than myself. Emotions Where are you now in your emotional life? My emotional life is now positive and strong. Although I still have low moments, especially when I’m reminded of my past failures, and I stronger and more optimistic by far. Meditation and prayer have helped me to calm myself in distress, to the point where I can ride rollercoasters and deal with turmoil at work without running off the rails. I have a much stronger ability to live life day by day instead of getting caught up in the turmoil of what-ifs. Where would you like to be? I would like to continue to grow emotionally and become continually more stable and strong. I know that I can’t make life’s adversities go away, but I want to be more capable of dealing with them. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? Sobriety makes me capable of dealing with emotional variation and manage it appropriately, so this is the most important factor. I need to continue to improve my coping skills to deal with adversity and situations effectively and efficiently, especially focusing on using the HALT technique, which I have found to be very effective. Spirituality Where are you now in your spirituality? My relationship with God is much closer than it was before. I pray and meditate on a regular basis, and I often pray with my wife. I have begun attending church regularly and started to go to weekly classes on religious education through the church. Where would you like to be? I would like to continue to grow closer and closer to God. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? I can continue to take the religion classes through church and continue to pray, meditate and trust God in my life more and more. Work Status Where are you now in your work status? My work status is very good. I work for a good company in a position I enjoy. I have another potential opportunity at work, but I don’t know yet if that option will work out. While I enjoy my job, the company is going through massive changes in organization and I have a new boss, all of which causes me stress. Where would you like to be? I can’t really control all of the organization changes at work and everything else, but I can control how I do my job. I would like to be better and better at my job. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? I will study Taguchi Methods, a methodology my new boss is fluent in, so I can work with her more effectively. I will create development plans for all people reporting to me to improve the overall effectiveness of my Department. Financial Status Where are you now in your Financial Status? My financial status is good but can be improved. My income is good, but retirement savings are not as good as they should be for the future of my wife and I . On the good side, I had two daughters getting married this Fall and managed to pay for most of it without going broke. Where would you like to be? I want to be financially stable with a solid retirement savings. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? I can work with a Financial Advisor to establish and execute a solid, feasible retirement plan. Fun and Recreation What do you do now for fun, relaxation, and recreation? I like to listen to music, hike, and play with my dog. I enjoy reading and studying history, and I enjoy doing family genealogical research. What would you like to do? I would like to spend more time in recreation, just having fun- but recovery has been pretty time consuming between Lionrock, Homework and AA. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? After I have finished extended counseling, I will schedule more time for relaxing and free time in general, while still continuing AA attendance. Romantic Relationships What is your current “relationship” status? I have been married for 28 years, and our relationship has been healing from its low point in the darkest periods of my alcoholism. Things we’re really tough at one point and our marriage was in significant danger, but we heal more every day. How would you like it to be? I would like to continue to grow closer and closer, learning to love and appreciate one another more and more. What actions can you take to accomplish your goals in this area of your life? Sobriety, openness, honesty and communication every day make everything better. Bridge Entry Letter Dear Bridge Facilitator:_________ I am writing to express my desire to join_________@ time_______ Here are some things I want you to know about myself -Describe what prompted you to seek our Lionrock Recover and recovery from your addiction. I came to Lionrock because I had hit my low point. I had attended AA for about two months and had reached, at one point, 30 days of sobriety then relapsed again. My last few relapses were awful (they seemed to get progressively worse). I woke up in Chicago by Police pounding on my door, and it took me a while to figure out I was in a hotel in Chicago and at first I couldn’t figure out how I got to Chicago. Another time, I was driving through the hills of Virigina to meet my wife and got so drunk drive I blacked out and had no idea where I was or what I was doing until she miraculously found me. Finally, I drank all night, got up in the morning and drove drunk home for about 7 hours (somehow by God’s grace I didn’t kill anyone). This brought me to Lionrock. Since joining, I’ve been sober and am now at 103 days of sobriety. I have embraced meditation and prayer, stop thought and HALT as very effective means to maintain my sobriety. -Describe your experience with your drug of choice and what benefits you have gained since giving up your drug of choice. My drug of choice was alcohol. I preferred beer, but as time went on the type of alcohol became less important. At the end, I usually had a bunch of beer followed by hard liquor because it would hit me faster and would do this after no eating all day just to get the maximum effect. Since I quit drinking, my brain is almost back to its old level of functioning, my relationships with friends and family are all improved and my work performance is markedly better and this has been recognized by my employer. -Describe your recovery experience. In this section, include what you have discovered to be your relapse triggers, high risk situations, and warning signs. Also discuss your overall thoughts regarding current and potential problems in your life. I could write pages about relapse triggers, high risk situations and relapse warning signs. Here are some key points for me: Relapse triggers: Places include Airports, gatherings with friends, hotels, and company social functions. The biggest situation for me as a trigger is being alone. Along with that the most significant trigger for feelings is loneliness. I drank in the past to kill or dull emotional pain. Warning signs of a relapse that are most applicable to me are feelings of loneliness, minor depressions, feelings that nothing is going to work out, feelings of impending doom and the feeling that I don’t need help anymore. Current problems in my life are changes in my job situation (large scale company reorganization that will result in a change in my job and a new boss), financial planning for the future, and the ghosts of past alcoholic behavior that still hurts my relationships. Potential problems in the future are job changes, and the adjustment of my wife and I to the “empty nest” as our children have started leaving home to begin lives of their own. -Indicate your intentions regarding your sobriety during your admission to the Bridge group. I intend to remain sober for the rest of my life, but I know to do this I just have to take it one day at a time. Sincerely…… Daniel