The advent of summer is usually accompanied by a change in schedules, and many of you have asked to come visit or meet with me. I am so grateful for all of your support and would love to see you, but they keep us on a pretty strict schedule here. At first, I felt irritated by the offers because I hated trying to explain exactly how I am so busy when I'm in treatment under the basic premise of learning how to relax. Yes, my day's are full of "mindfulness" activities (i.e., trying to meditate) and group therapy (i.e., trying to explain and listen) and eating (i.e., eating...a lot). What I didn't take into consideration was the fact that I haven't really explained to you just what it is that I do all day. Here I am, divulging my deepest, darkest treatment secrets, and yet I haven't even given you the basic information! And I call myself a blogger...
Our days are grouped into the same time periods every day. This is the pattern:
So, I intend to give a brief description here.Our days are grouped into the same time periods. This is the pattern:
(I eat an extra snack in the morning)
7:15- Van picks us up at the apartment
8:30-9:15 Breakfast
9:30-10:30 Group Therapy (Recovery Skills, like Communication or Emotional Acceptance)
10:40 Snack
11:15-12:30 Group Therapy (like Real World or Meal Planning, where we buy the items that we use to make our own meals once per week)
12:45- 1:30 Lunch
1:45- 3:00 Process Group or Community Meeting (Process Group is with 4-5 other patients and our therapist; Community Meeting is with the whole group)
3:15- 3:30 Snack
4:00-5:00 Group Therapy (like Psychodrama or Art Therapy)
5:00- 6:00 Free time
5:45 Thought Log (where we talk about our Intentions for dinner/ the evening)
6:00-6:45 Dinner
Around 7:15 Van drops us off at the apartment
(Almost everyone has another snack at night. My roommates and I host tea time, inviting the other patients over to eat their snack and have tea with us. It helps a lot of the patients who struggle to eat alone.)
Of note: Everything runs late and ends on time. This may or may not be the treatment team's way of enforcing flexibility.
This is a very basic structure. After every meal we also process our thoughts/ feelings and discuss intentions. Also, we are constantly being pulled out of group therapy to have one-on-one sessions with our therapists (two times/ week), our family therapist (one time/ week), our dietitian (one time/ week) and our psychiatrist (one time/ week).
We get to leave program by asking for "passes." Most of these passes occur during a snack or meal-time, where we test our skills in public. It's also a great time to get to explore Denver and visit with friends. Passes must be approved by our therapist and are often discussed with the dietitian.
The only change to this schedule is on Sunday, when we don't need to be in program until 10:00. We are expected to eat breakfast on our own. Some patients go out to eat; some make food at home.
Also, Level 3 patients (that's the last level before Outpatient; I am a Level 3) get to plan and cook their own meals once a week. The group also goes to a restaurant once a week, accompanied by a dietitian. This Thursday I'm going to Snarf's for lunch!
I hope this helps to alleviate some confusion. I am in therapy seven days a week, 11+ hours a day. I swear, learning to relax is a lot of work!
Impressive!
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