For people not ready to face the world head-on, for people without a sober place to go, and for people still struggling with addiction and a corresponding mental illness, coming out of drug or alcohol rehab and into a sober living environment can be a great way to increase the odds of long term sobriety and success.

What is sober living housing?

Sober living housing (halfway housing) is simply a residency, that may or may not offer some degree of addictions therapy, and which provides low cost accommodation to addicts in recovery in return for an agreement to accept a certain and strict code of conduct.

Residents transitioning through a sober living house must generally gain employment, may not bring drugs or alcohol in to the house, may not appear intoxicated inside the residence, and must abide by behavioral rules such as curfews and work duties. Residents are free to stay for as long as they like, and there is rarely a pre set period of residency, but most recovering addicts stay from 1-6 months.

The benefits of sober living housing

There are a number of benefits to residency in a sober living house, and one of the most obvious is simply that living in a sober house reduces the temptations of independent living, and increases the odds that recovering addicts can withstand the sometimes intense cravings during the initial months out of rehab.

But sober living housing offers more and one of the intangibles, but something that does offer great assistance to those struggling with sobriety, is simply the development of sober friendships within the house, and learning again how to have fun without drugs or alcohol.

Most people with lengthy addictions histories have spent years equating fun or recreation with intoxication, and newly sober addicts often find leisure time one of the greatest threats to sobriety. How can you have fun without intoxication?

If you're on your own, filling leisure time and dealing with loneliness can be difficult, but in a sober living house you benefit from the company and camaraderie of a group of recovering addicts in a very similar situation to yours. Sober living house friendships are the rule rather than the exception, and addicts learn together how to have fun and enjoy themselves in a healthy and safe manner.

This may seem a small thing at the surface level, but dealing with leisure time in a healthy way is crucial to long term sobriety, and those that cannot learn this skill have little chance at ultimate success.

Don't relapse

A participation in sober living housing is statistically correlated with a greater rate of continuation of aftercare therapy, and also a greater rate of sobriety; and there are quite a number of reasons why this is so. Making sober friends, having fun without alcohol, and learning how to live without intoxication are not the only things sober living housing offers, but these are all significant and do minimize the risks of the initial few months of sobriety.

Most major centers will have at least a few sober living environments, and your local health service, drug treatment center, or doctor should be able to recommend your local options.

For those with no sober place to go, for those who don't feel ready to face the full temptations of the outside world, and for those who simply don't know how to have fun without drugs of alcohol, sober living housing can be a great alternative.

Autor: Christian Shire

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