Staying in a sober living home is a good option for those who have just completed their addiction rehab program. During your stay in the rehabilitation centre, you were given the opportunity to learn various skills that will help you to stay sober. 

Being in a sober living home will allow you to practice and strengthen those skills. Once you feel ready and you have been given the go signal by your therapist, then you can join the real world smoothly. 

You may be wondering what sober living homes are. In this article, we’ll share with you some useful information that you need to know about them. Also, we will discuss the benefits of staying in sober living homes and how it is crucial for your long-term recovery.

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What is a Sober Living Home?

Sober living homes are also called halfway houses. It is a place that bridges you between the rehabilitation centre and the actual real world. When you graduate from the rehab facility and go back home, you may encounter some challenges. For example, you may need to adjust to a new routine. 

When you are in a sober living home, you can ease into your usual life more easily. You can incorporate your routine from rehab into your everyday life. You may also take the chance to apply the many lessons you have learned during your treatment and rehabilitation. 

For many people who are recovering from their addictions, staying in a sober living home is a vital step. It makes a lot of difference when it comes to the long-term success of their recovery. They know they are in a safe place with people who are going through the same processes.

How Do Sober Living Homes Help in Addiction Recovery?

After rehab, if you immediately go back home, it becomes too easy to slide back into your old routines. But when you stay in a sober living home, you will have the opportunity to strengthen your mindset, skills, and strategies to stay sober for good. 

Sober living homes can help you with your worries about transitioning from the structure and rigour of rehab into your everyday life. It is unfortunate that for many people who are trying to recover from addictions, sober living homes are the only option for a safe and sober environment. 

While sober living homes won’t be imposing very structured days such as those in the rehab, it will give you a place where you can practice your independence. So, in a way, you can do what you want without anyone having to monitor you all the time. But now that you are somewhat on your own, you have a lot to prove to yourself. And one of those things is that you can stay clean and sober. 

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What You Should Expect from Sober Living Homes

When you were in an inpatient facility like a rehab centre, you were completely immersed in the sobriety program. You didn’t have access to drugs and medical professionals were always looking out for your well-being. It won’t be the case for sober living homes. 

Once you’re in the sober living home, you may stay or leave whenever you want to. You don’t have to feel constricted by being there. It is with this kind of set up that you will feel more like you’re back in your normal life. You may also start to go back to the daily tasks that you had as well as take on responsibilities. 

Even though a sober living home may not be as restrictive as that of an inpatient facility, you still have to abide by the rules of the house. For example, sober living homes have curfews. You may also have to attend group meetings. All these things are good for you because it will provide you with a structure as you are making adjustments to your life. 

Benefits of Staying in Sober Living Homes

There are plenty of benefits that you can get if you stay in a sober living home after you graduate from an inpatient program. You can attend 12-step programs, create a structure to your days, practice accountability, and make friends with people who are going through the same process of becoming sober. 

A huge part of being in a sober living home is that you can create good relationships with people who are also trying to get clean and sober. These relationships will help you to reinforce your commitment to stop using alcohol and drugs. 

With this kind of support system, the residents of sober living homes can avoid being isolated. Isolation usually happens when recovering addicts return to their homes after their stay in the rehabilitation centre. 

Furthermore, the sober living homes can provide you with a supportive environment for your recovery. You will find encouragement from people who have gone through what you are going through. They understand your situation and will give you tips to stay away from drug use. 

When you are in a sober living home, you will have a combination of both structure and freedom. It will definitely help you to start to adjust to your life outside of the rehab centre. These homes are available as a transitional home for those who have just come out of addiction treatment. 

 

How Sober Living Homes Can Help You Stay Sober

Consider sober living homes as a kind of supplement to your recovery from addiction. In a way, it is a place where you can transition from being in a very structured environment to one that doesn’t have structure at all. 

While you are staying in sober living homes, you get the chance to practice everyday life scenarios. But at the same time, being there will remind you of the healthy habits that you have learned. You will be able to practice those as well and help you lessen the risk of relapsing. 

As a resident of a sober living home, there are several things that you will be doing so as to guide you through your addiction treatment and recovery. Here are some of those:

• You can start to make amends with your family and friends who have been affected by your addiction. 
• While in a sober living home, you can start looking for a job. 
• During your stay, you may also start looking for a house or an apartment where you’d want to live when you have been given the go signal that your treatment is done. 
• You can adjust to a sober life in a less structured environment. 

In addition to those things, you should also follow an aftercare plan that is specifically crafted for you. It will include a plan for relapse prevention. It will be developed in therapy where you can identify the triggers that can cause you to start using drugs again. 

Sober living homes will also continue to teach you with skills that you need to cope with stress in healthy ways. You will be given emergency contacts so that you have someone to call when you are experiencing high stress or intense cravings to use drugs. With this, you will know what you can do and avoid going back to an unhealthy and dangerous lifestyle. 

What Sober Living Homes Can Provide You

There are things that you need to be able to stay sober for the long term. Staying in sober living homes will provide you with the necessities of a clean and drug-free life. The benefits of staying there after rehab are tremendous. Let’s take a look at five of the biggest benefits that you can get from sober living homes. 

You will be a part of a community

As you get nearer to the end of your treatment, you will start seeing that staying sober isn’t an individual effort. Maybe because of shame or pride, you tell yourself that you don’t need others to fix the problems in your life. But the truth is that we do need others. The journey towards recovery will be much more doable when you have a strong support system. 

Drugs or alcohol numbs us from the reality of the situation. Because of these substances, you continually tell this lie to yourself that you can do things alone. Asking for help is not giving up. It doesn’t mean that you’ve lost the battle. In fact, it is only the beginning of your journey towards recovery.

When you start to acknowledge that you need others to successfully heal from your addiction, you will notice that there are indeed meaningful changes in your life. In the rehab facilities and in a sober living home, you will have the chance to meet people and even make friends.  You can bond with people going through the same ordeal. It will make you a stronger and a person who is better adjusted.

Exposure to the Real World

While you’re in a sober living home, you will also have exposure to the real world. It won’t be like in the rehab facility where it is structured and there are health care professionals supervising you. 

In sober living homes, you will be living with other individuals who are trying to recover from their addictions. It is a place where all of you can open up and talk about how you are doing in your recovery. During difficult situations, you can also help each other out. 

You will get the opportunity to have the needed exposure and a taste of the real world. You will slowly ease in and rebuild your life. It will be a good time to establish bonds with others and share the many things that you’ve learned along the way on your road to recovery. 

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You will be More Accountable

Accountability may seem like a scary word. It may seem hard to think that we have to answer to someone for our actions. However, we need people who can hold us accountable. For example, our peers in the sober living home can help us by checking on our sobriety. 

It may seem annoying to think that someone’s going to have to check up on you if you’ve been using drugs or drinking. But remember, staying clean is going to be a team effort. In the same way that you rely on them to hold you accountable, you can be that person for them as well. 

You and your peers can update each other on your challenges and if you ever find yourself relapsing, these are the people you can count on for support. They won’t judge you if you had a moment of weakness. Instead, they will tell you to get up and get your act together. They will cheer you on and continually be your support during your addiction recovery. 

You can Learn New Skills

Staying in a sober living home will provide you with plenty of opportunities to learn new skills. For example, the best ones that you can learn would be social skills. There, you will live with different kinds of people. You need to be able to get along with others. That means making adjustments to different personalities and improving your communication skills.

Apart from that, you will also be encouraged to get a job so that you can be independent and support yourself. You can learn plenty of skills while you’re on your addiction recovery. Depending on the programs available in the sober living home, you can choose what you think would suit you best. When you get your certification or if you graduate from the course, you can then start looking for work. 

You will grow in more ways than one while you’re in a sober living home. Your social skills will improve, you will learn life skills that will help you land a job, and you will learn to persevere. All these things will enable you to lead a productive and happy life again. 

Takeaway

There are plenty of benefits to staying in a sober living home. For sure, it will help you recover from your addiction. After your program in the rehab centre, it would be advantageous for you to stay in a sober living home so that you can have the time that you need to ease back into the real world. It will provide you with plenty of opportunities to learn new skills and create meaningful relationships. Call Inspire Change Addiction Rehab in Vancouver for addiction treatment programs.

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