3 Reasons to Choose Sober Living Over Living at Home

Addiction, in any form, can take a considerable toll on a person’s ability to manage daily life. After a certain point, the effects of the drug on the body and mind make it near impossible to function at all. Considering the hurdles that stand between addiction and getting well, making it through drug treatment marks a definite turning point in the recovery process.

While completing drug treatment is no doubt a clear sign of progress, maintaining continued abstinence from drug use means ensuring you have the needed supports in place from here on out. For people coming off a long history of drug or alcohol abuse, some level of ongoing treatment will likely be necessary. Sober living programs act as a type of bridge between the controlled drug treatment environment and the unlimited amount of choices that face you in the “real word.”

Granted, the body’s dependency on drugs or alcohol may well be broken, but the psychological effects of addiction can extend well past your time in drug treatment. For these reasons, anyone coming off a chronic or long-term addiction problem may well want to consider the benefits of entering a sober living program.

Sober Living Homes

A sober living environment gives recovering addicts the opportunity to create a drug-free lifestyle after treatment.

The prospect of returning home after drug treatment can seem overwhelming considering all that’s at stake. It’s not uncommon for people in this situation to fall back into old routines and behaviors that inevitably lead back to drug using practices.

Within the context of the recovery process, sober living homes function as semi-independent living environments where recovering addicts can create the type of drug-free lifestyle that promotes long-term abstinence. According to the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, sober living homes allow a person to transition from the drug treatment program environment into everyday life while developing the types of behaviors and routines that support continued abstinence.

Reasons to Choose a Sober Living Home

1. Structure & Stability

A sober living home runs according to a set of rules that work to create a sense of structure and stability, similar to how drug treatment programs run. Residents must adhere to house rules as a condition of their stay in the program. A set of rules may include the following:

• A person must be employed or actively looking for work
• Residents must carry household chores
• Regular attendance at 12-Step meetings
• Residents pay monthly rent
• No alcohol or drugs allowed on the premises
• No alcohol or drug use permitted
• Nightly curfews

2. Recovery-Focused Environment

According to the Executive Office of Health & Human Services, sober living home programs strive to create a recovery-focused living environment where residents can receive needed support and guidance as they adjust to managing the affairs of everyday living. In effect, the residents that live in the home become a community of like-minded individuals with the same overall goal of overcoming addiction and maintaining abstinence on a day-to-day basis.

3. Real-World Experience in Recovery

Holding down a job, fulfilling household responsibilities and managing money can be stressful for anyone, let alone someone recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction. Over the course of your stay in a sober living home, you develop the types of coping skills that enable you to manage the stress and pressure of daily living without the need for drugs.

Top 5 Reasons to Try Sober Housing

Considerations

Opiate addiction recovery is a process made up of stages of growth and development. Throughout this process, recovering addicts require different levels of support in order to sustain his or her efforts at living a drug-free lifestyle. For people coming off long-time addiction problems, sober living homes offer support and guidance on day-to-day basis as a person works to rebuild his or her life.

If you or someone you know are considering entering a sober living home and have further questions about how these programs work, please don’t hesitate to call our toll-free helpline at 800-953-3913 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addictions counselors.