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.