6 Benefits of Sober Living

We’ve talked about the benefits of sobriety, but what about the benefits of sober living homes specifically? As in, the benefits of really and truly living sober day-to-day, away from substances and a substance-using society. Prison and jail overcrowding in the U.S. has reached a crisis point.

• Rent usually covers all living expenses besides food and entertainment.
• Sober Living housing is focused on helping people find and use the tools and principles of recovery – following addiction treatment or in addition to addiction treatment.
• Regardless of where you are in your sobriety journey, Real Recovery can help.
• This might include eating healthy, exercising regularly, keeping a clean home, and maintaining good personal hygiene.

Over 24 agencies affiliated with CAARR offer clean and sober living services. Since sober living typically follows addiction treatment, getting a referral from the treatment provider is recommended. Other referral sources may include the criminal justice system, a mental health professional, Twelve Step meeting participants, or friends and family. Whatever the source of the referral, take a tour of the facility and talk to the people living there to decide if it’s the right fit for you.

Finding A Sober Living Home

They are designed to be a transitional space from residential treatment to mainstream society. Residents aren’t bound to the sober living home’s campus and can come and go as they please. This allows individuals in recovery to feel like they are easing back into normal life and can start going back to their daily tasks and responsibilities. Although sober living homes are less restrictive than inpatient facilities, they still have rules that residents must abide by, including curfews and group meeting attendance. A sober living home is a great option to alleviate any concerns you may have about going from such a monitored environment right back into daily life.

However, some houses will allow other types of activities that can substitute for 12 step groups, provided they constitute a strategy for maintaining ongoing abstinence. Although halfway houses share a lot in common with sober-living homes, there are a few key differences that set them apart. Going to a sober living house has been proven to support sobriety efforts, with results ranging from a decreased amount of relapses to long-term sobriety. Halfway houses, also known as sober re-entry programs, tend to be more structured. Sometimes they are designed specifically for formerly incarcerated folks.

Unlock your path toward recovery

In addition to studying a larger number of offenders, we hope to explore an innovative intervention designed to improve outcomes for these residents in terms of employment, arrests, and other areas. Our intervention modifies motivational interviewing to address the specific needs of the offender population (Polcin, 2006b). Specifically, it helps residents resolve their mixed feelings (i.e., ambivalence) about living in the SLH and engaging in other community based services. Thus, the intervention is a way to help them prepare for the challenges and recognize the potential benefits of new activities and experiences. In a recent analysis of CSTL residents we looked at psychiatric severity as a predictor of alcohol and drug outcome using growth curve models (Korcha et al (2010).

The hope is that with a period of extra support at a substance abuse halfway house or other sober living home, residents will learn the skills to be self-sufficient and maintain sobriety on their own. Many individuals attempting to abstain from alcohol and drugs do not have access to appropriate housing that supports sustained recovery. Our study found positive longitudinal outcomes for 300 individuals living in two different types of SLHs, which suggests they might be an effective option for those in need of alcohol- and drug-free housing. Improvements were noted in alcohol and drug use, arrests, psychiatric symptoms and employment.

Recovery Advocacy

A halfway house is a community home typically designed for men or women who are mandated to spend time in a transitional facility. Most often, these individuals are returning to society after time spent serving a sentence for a drug or alcohol-related crime. For many people who are reintegrating after time in prison or jail, the first days, weeks and months in mainstream society can be overburdened with triggers. Sober living homes and halfway houses are frequently confused and for good reason. There is a lot of overlap in the function of these homes, as the main goal of both is to keep residents abstinent from drugs and alcohol. While these facilities maintain much in common, there are key differences in the formation, funding, regulations and logistical aspects of sober living vs. halfway houses.

Chris is a storyteller and aims to share his story with others in the hopes of helping them achieve their own recovery. This measure includes 9 items and was developed by Humphreys, Kaskutas and Weisner (1998) to measure the strength of an individual’s affiliation with AA. The scale includes a number of items beyond attendance at meetings, including questions about sponsorship, spirituality, and volunteer service positions at meetings. Stigma and shame became less powerful [in sober living], and the group looked out for each other. Add sober house to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

Our purpose here is to summarize the most salient and relevant findings for SLHs as a community based recovery option. We then expand on the findings by considering potential implications of SLHs for treatment and criminal justice systems. We also include a discussion of our plans to study the community context of SLHs, which will depict how stakeholder influences support and hinder their operations and potential for expansion. In addition to these rules, people who live in these types of houses usually have to work or go to school during the day and must contribute to the home by doing chores.

New residents are often encouraged or required to attend daily A.A. Halfway houses serve as the halfway point between an institution and independent society, with residents usually coming from either correctional or inpatient treatment facilities. Many people benefit from residing in a sober living house after completing treatment, but you don’t have to make this decision alone.

In some cases, sober living homes will contract with licensed drug rehabilitation centers and therapists as a means for providing an even greater level of care. These types of sober livings do tend to charge higher fees, however, they are often able to provide a very affordable alternative to what would otherwise constitute high-priced inpatient treatment. As we’ve said many times already, there’s no one answer to, “How do sober living homes work?

This measure was taken from Gerstein et al. (1994) and was defined as number of arrests over the past 6 months. As stronger and stronger evidence emerges of the value of community and connection as drivers of recovery, I hope we see more of this kind of practice and research in the U.K. An operator of a Certified Sober Living Home that voluntarily reports its certified status to DMHAS shall provide the number of https://www.healthworkscollective.com/how-choose-sober-house-tips-to-focus-on/ beds available in the Sober Living Home at the time of its report and weekly thereafter. John C. Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE is board-certified in addiction medicine and preventative medicine. For over 20 years Dr. Umhau was a senior clinical investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Some homes allow cell phones and pets if they aren’t disruptive.

Private owners usually own these homes, but charities and businesses may also own sober living houses. If you live in a recovery house, you may either have your own room or share one with a roommate. Most of the time, residents share communal spaces, like kitchens, living rooms, sober house and backyards. Sober living houses (also called halfway houses or recovery houses) refer to group residences for people recovering from addiction. Most likely, insurance will not cover this type of housing, because it is not considered a mental health treatment center.

• Sober living homes are places where people in recovery can live for a while, typically after an inpatient treatment program.
• Sober House Directory is a helpful starting place to find a recovery home and includes listings for sober houses, recovery residences, structured group homes, and other sober living for men and women in recovery.
• Rehab centers offer intensive recovery programs that help residents overcome addictions by following strict rules and regulations.
• A “Resident Congress” consisting of current residents and alumni helps enforce house rules and provides input into the management of the houses.