Jake’s Story
When Jake moved to Tennessee to play music, he quickly realized he could use some help settling into this new life transition. Years of sober living have taught him the importance of healthy community and mentorship. Regular meetings with his counselor help Jake continue leveling up in his life.
Jake’s Story Transcript
When I treat myself like a valued customer, I start to get those rewards back and have value for myself and my own life.
My name is Jake, and this is my story.
I come from Eugene, OR, and I moved to Tennessee in October of 2018. I’m a musician by background, and I moved to Nashville to play music. I can play Americana and Country.
I grew up in a dysfunctional family. My first drink of alcohol was at age 11, and my last was at age 26. So I had 15 years of experimentation with drugs and alcohol. At age 26, I got sober from drugs and alcohol, and I’m now 30, so I have four years of 12-step recovery under my belt.
For a lot of my life, my battle was learning how to deal with my own inner demons. When you mix drugs, alcohol, and unhealthy fellowship, you have a really negative cocktail. It was unhealthy relationships, drugs, alcohol, and isolation. What I was lacking was the importance of fellowship. I needed people that I could be really honest with about my thoughts and feelings, without having to live in some kind of facade. Today, it’s healthy relationships, extremely healthy fellowship, mentors, no drugs, no alcohol, health, and fitness. I’ve learned how to turn all those things upside down.
When I moved to Hendersonville, it became apparent that it would be good to have a therapist, counselor, mentor in this new transition of life. Moving to a new place can be overwhelming, and I felt it was more than okay to reach out and get help. So, I found Insight Counseling and set up an appointment. It shakes me sometimes, and I have ups and downs, but my counseling with Dwight has been really helpful. I feel like every week I’m getting real results and moving through things with constructive results. I see Dwight once a week, and it’s been so helpful to know that there are these things I can bring to the therapist, and we can work through them.
Being able to talk about scriptural things and what’s going on in the Bible study for the week with Dwight is powerful because spirituality and religion are a significant part of my story. Mixing my faith with counseling has been extremely powerful. In the first session, I felt like I could open up and really share what’s going on with me, and it has profoundly helped me. Every time I have a session with Dwight, I want to keep leveling up my own recovery, meditation, and exercise game. It’s almost like a check-in on how much better I’m doing this week. It really helps me find solutions to get better.
The road to freedom is learning to open up some of those doors that sometimes feel scary to open. That’s what the truth will set you free. When you can find safe people to share your truth with, you’re about to get help that you couldn’t even quantify in other ways. One thing that’s really always stuck out to me is that you can’t think your way into a better way of living, but you can live your way into a better way of thinking. I think that’s what CBT is in a nutshell. You’re learning how to live your way into a better way of thinking.