It is challenging for recovering addicts to quickly adapt to and cope with the demands and anxieties of living independently just after emerging from an alcohol addiction treatment center. The real world still contains numerous addiction triggers, and they have not yet learned healthy coping mechanisms. It is not surprising that relapses are common even in highly motivated individuals in the first few months after leaving the treatment center. Sober living houses (SLHs) help recovering addicts make a smooth and stress-free transition to mainstream life by teaching them coping mechanisms, altering their thought patterns and automatic behavioral responses, and connecting them to support groups.
What are Sober Living Homes and How Do They Operate?
SLHs are alcohol and drug-free living environments where recovering addicts may choose to stay for some time after they have completed treatment in a residential rehabilitation facility or while they are attending an outpatient addiction program. These places aim to support and sustain abstinence and prevent relapses in recovering addicts. SLHs teach skills, thought patterns, and behavioral responses to help them function independently and responsibly in mainstream life without the supervision, structure, protection, and guidance of an inpatient rehab facility.
SLHs are not licensed or funded by federal or local governments. The residents have to bear the costs of staying here. The philosophy of recovery focuses on 12-step programs where attendance is mandatory or strongly encouraged and peer support. The National Institute on Drug Abuse recommends a minimum of 90 days of stay. Many SLHs require that a resident stays for at least 30 days.
Although these places have less stringent regimens than inpatient rehab clinics, they still require residents to adhere to certain rules. Recovering addicts can stay here if they have been sober for some time and are not suffering from withdrawal symptoms and physical disorders that may have been caused by their substance abuse issues. Residents can go out during the day to attend schools or jobs, but they must return at night. Most SLHs have curfew hours.
Residents of sober living homes are expected to take care of themselves and perform daily chores like purchasing and preparing food, washing their laundry, and cleaning up after themselves.
Many SLHs offer a multitude of services like family therapy sessions, music and art therapy, job search support, personalized mentoring programs, and legal support to deal with employment or custody issues.
What Are the Benefits of Staying in SLHs?
Staying in SLHs offers some unique benefits that being treated in an inpatient rehab facility or attending an outpatient clinic cannot provide. The benefits stem from the way SLHs operate and their philosophy of treatment. Read on to find out about the benefits of staying in SLHs.
1. Learning to Process Negative Emotions
Inpatient rehab facilities help addicts undergo detoxification safely in a supervised environment. They also treat addicts for any addiction-induced physical or mental disorder. But both inpatient and outpatient facilities focus primarily on the physical healing process. Recovering addicts eventually have to leave these sheltered, substance-free environments and head out into the real world. Right off the bat, they are expected to perform at the workplace, repair damaged relationships, and shoulder the responsibilities of home and family without the solace of alcohol or the drug that had once helped them “escape” by numbing their minds. They head out into a world full of addiction triggers, as emotionally vulnerable to succumbing to temptations as they were when they had entered rehab. It is just a matter of time before many people relapse.
Sober living homes help residents work on and process their negative emotions, attitudes, and beliefs that chip away at their power and leave them vulnerable to relapsing.
At SLHs, recovering addicts learn about the nature of addiction and explore the roots of their addictive behaviors. They delve deep into their psyche to identify and understand the emotional triggers that had compelled them to reach out for drugs or a bottle of wine. This is vital self-knowledge that paves the way for greater self-acceptance. When they realize addiction is not a moral flaw or mental weakness, they can make peace with themselves. With guilt or shame no longer ravaging them, they can work on rebuilding their lives confidently.
Attending 12-step or similar programs help recovering addicts look closely into their coping mechanisms, shed the unhealthy ones, and learn healthier behavioral responses. This is a critical exercise that empowers them to navigate the challenges of mainstream life without feeling the need to take drugs or alcohol.
2. Building a Lifelong Support Network of Sober Friends
Residents at SLHs usually go on to form deep and lifelong bonds with one another. These are bonds between people who had been on the same journey, had similar life stories, and are now striving to attain the common goal of sustained sobriety. According to the findings of a study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, social support is critical to sustaining sobriety.
3. Beginning a Life of Abstinence with a Robust Safety Net
After leaving an inpatient rehab, recovering addicts have to counter the challenges of trying to live independently, earning a livelihood after a prolonged break, and rebuilding strained relationships. They have to go through these stresses without alcohol or drugs, coping mechanisms that had once let them escape their troubles. Staying in a sober living house after they have just begun a life of abstinence lets recovering addicts navigate the challenges with the support of a safety net. A sober environment, regular counseling sessions, and encouragement from people who are undertaking the same journey to sobriety and who have been through similar experiences provide recovering addicts with the impetus they need to stay on course.
4. Learning to “Choose” Sobriety
The litmus test of sobriety is being able to abstain from alcohol or drugs even when you have access to these substances and the opportunity to consume them.
Sober living homes help recovering addicts build emotional resilience and teach them coping mechanisms that do not involve taking drugs or binging on alcohol. Thus empowered, residents choose to say no to drugs and alcohol. The more they refuse to yield to temptations, the less their brains connect alcohol or drugs to pleasant and rewarding feelings like relaxation and peace. After some time, the brain is rewired, and it gets easier with time to stay sober.
5. Rebuilding Self-Esteem
Put yourself in the shoes of a recovering addict for a moment. You see yourself going about your life confronting and managing challenges without falling apart emotionally and seeking refuge in drugs or alcohol. You see yourself resisting the urge to reach out for a bottle of alcohol or pop in a pill when stressed out. You can refuse a drink even when people around you are drinking. These are ego boosters.
A period of sustained sobriety boosts confidence levels in addicts who have just emerged from a structured inpatient or outpatient treatment program and are learning abstinence. This newfound confidence spills into other areas of their lives as well. They feel empowered and more in control of their lives and the choices they make.
Who Should Stay at SLHs?
Staying at SLHs is not mandatory. But some people benefit more than others by staying in a sober living house before returning to mainstream life.
Recovering addicts should consider staying in an SLH if there is no societal structure at home that supports sobriety or if they are homeless and need a safe place to stay while they rebuild their lives. Those who are not confident of resisting temptations or staying sober in a stressful environment should also consider staying in a sober living home.
Residential addiction treatment and rehabilitation centers are expensive. Staying in an SLH while attending an outpatient rehab center is a wallet-friendly option.
How to Choose a Sober Living Home?
Do not fall for glitzy commercials. Do your research, and ensure that you choose a sober living home that provides the highest quality of care.
The Better Business Bureau website carries reviews of such treatment centers. The National Alliance for Recovery Residences scrutinizes sober living homes based on a set of stringent criteria and lists them on their website. The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities certifies sober living homes based on the standard of care they provide.
Sober living homes provide a critical transitional step between the sheltered and structured environment of a residential rehab center and the chaos and stresses of mainstream life. By empowering recovering addicts to lead independent, productive, and sober lives, these institutions also contribute to the creation of a substance-free, healthy society.
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