Sober living is an important need of twenty first century. An effective recovery plan may include post-rehab residence in a sober living community. The absence of a stable, drug-free, and supportive environment following rehab can serve as a trigger for relapse. Sober living communities serve as a deterrent to relapse and can provide a recovering substance abuser with the personal space required to build a new life based on abstinence. Because these homes are not licensed and do not receive government funding, residents must pay out of pocket, just like they would if they were renting a room. In general, sober living homes stress peer support & participation at 12 Step meetings.
Even though room arrangements vary, sober living is a collective situation based on the idea that people in recovery are distinctively placed to mutually support one another in maintaining sobriety.
Sober Living Communities
The communities are specially designed for the former drug addicts to try to practice living everyday life. These communities can protect the replacement of the drug used previously. Moreover, these communities are the best at providing the much-needed personal space to the recovering substance abuser. Returning to everyday life directly in the judgmental community is not something the former abuser can cope with easily.
Sober living communities are practically feasible because they can provide an environment close to the original modern human society guiding the substance abuser towards building a novel life built on self-discipline. Interestingly, sober homes don’t work under any non-profit organization nor received funding from the government or other donors. This reason adds to its originality and asks the resident to pay for their stay just people rent out houses in standard settings.
The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs published research on sober communities by monitoring 300 substance abusers going through the process of recovering while being in two different sober living homes over 18 months.
The study related to sober living results avowed the concept that social and environmental factors are the key points playing a vital role in the successful recovery of former drug abusers. The social factors include the physical and interactive social environment or persons’ social networks. The backbone of the social network in the area and surrounding one is living in.
For instance, a study based on sober living, monitoring and studying the recovering process of the former alcohol abusers found asceticism to have a positive direct relationship with social support.
This support was mainly based on the attendance of the 12-step meetings and aid in maintaining sobriety. Under consideration study also find that the role of sober living communities was not just abstinence.
It also involved these communities in achieving lower reported crimes and arrest rates by former substance addicts, aiding higher employment rates, and guiding them to achieve a clear improvement in showing psychiatric symptoms. In an attempt to conclude the reason behind the immense success of these post-rehab communities, the researchers listed the three factors to be the main predictors related to sober living.
These are following are linked with sober living:
- More extensive involvement in specially designed 12-step meeting program
- Interacting and having fewer to no alcohol or drug handlers in one’s close communal proximity
- Lastly, having scarcer to no psyche related problems
The study participants involved both types of former substance abusers, including the ones recommended by the criminal court to the sober living community, and the second type was the voluntarily registered people. Both categories show the same rate of success.
However, people referred by the court showed more incidents of re-arrests and understandably experienced a more challenging time getting and maintaining their employment. The findings of the stated study reaffirmed the concept of sober living communities. Proving that a well-crafted aftercare program involving a free of drug and helpful environment can play an active role to increase the success rate of recovery. These also help the former abusers to return to everyday lives.
Sober living rules guarantee that users stick to their commitment to sobriety in the short term, but the support provided by peers can be critical to long-term recovery even after sober living ends. They encourage and support positive behaviour, and they are frequently willing to intervene with empathy and advice when things go wrong. Some people even consider their housemates to be a sober family.
During sober living, residents relearn how to connect with others, and these connections can last a lifetime. Even if sober living is not professionally managed, all sober living has structure and rules. Residents are kept safe, comfortable, and sober by following the rules. Long before enrollment, facilities present their rules, and those considering a sober home should carefully review those rules. Rules can assist a recovering addict in making significant strides toward recovery. They cover topics such as self-care, peer support, housework, and employment, among others are related to sobering living.
The Famous Perry House
While it is provenly true that the supportive environment based on mutual support provided by the drug or substance recovering peers is one of the prominent characters of the success of the sober living communities, however, the actor Matthew Perry who himself have faced addiction, took the sentiment of mutual help on other levels and converted his Malibu home with an estimated worth of more than 12 million dollars into a sober living communal.
He names the community as “The Perry House. The artist has since got the community listed for a rummage sale to move the sober community to a more reasonable portion of the metropolitan, Los Angeles.
The perry house’s implemented rehabilitation plan’s main aspects include 12-step meeting, 24-hour management, home-cooked meals, and regular drug testing. However, this noble act of kindness has a policy rule that helps based on medication is prohibited. Putting the noble deeds of The Perry House aside, the chart-topping writer Anne Fletcher takes the question related to The Perry House’s policy rules – medication aided treatment as methadone & Suboxone is not allowed. in the book. This addresses the problem faced by some in need drug addicts and other issues related to sober living in The Perry House.
As Anne Fletcher writes, the medicine methadone and Suboxone are not just detox suppositories, and these can prove to be handy for individuals recuperating from opioid addiction. These medications can be a vital part of the long-run plan of recovery for some individuals.
However, sober living facilities pay special attention to inquiring the former substance abusers about their medication use. This inquiry often biased towards accessing individuals who genuinely need medication assistanceand have applied for getting the service by using either Suboxone or methadone. The same biased practice prevails in The Perry House as well. Even though this is an awful practise to follow, author Fletcher found it familiar when inquiring for her writing purposes.
Anne Fletcher’s point initiated the vast debates about the realities of living in a sober community. This point raises the need for the potential residents, the voluntary ones, to consider the possible limitations they can face while opting for a sober living community and compare it to the potential benefits living in such settings have got to offer. In short, do a cost-benefit analysis before opting for a sober community option.
Additional Considerations
As all sober living communities are unregulated and self-funded, conditions, services, living standards, and quality of accommodations may vary significantly. One of the personal stories published in The Fix states and ponder that in many cases, the sober homes owners may be inexperienced and lack basic knowledge of the setup required for this particular community. Hence these amateur owners fail to provide the basic facilities necessary for people going through this vital step of aftercare and are often unsuccessful in running sober homes. Since these sober communities can be highly lucrative for owners, like in any other field here as well, people are lured in this business with aims of earning profits over the sincere desire to provide the helping hand towards the suffering substance abusers and support them in the recovering process. not all sober homes are bad some may be well run and greatly helpful. So, choosing a sober house is a significant step towards having achieved all its assistance and support. Therefore, when looking around for a sober living home, some points should be kept in mind.
Here are a few of the tips to remember when choosing a sober house.
- Go for the recommended option from a trusted source
- Go through the rules of a sober home beforejoining it.
- Carefully select whether to opt for a same-sex sober home or a coed community.
- Knowing the type of the owner/operator is essential so do a background check.
- Check the years of experience of the owners/operators of the facility.
Although anyone can live in a sober living home, you have to not give up, even if it does not prove suitable for you. The potential residents should keep in mind that they are not committing to a specific sober community home but themselves. The goal is to achieve continuous sobriety for oneself.
So, when you chose ourdual diagnosis assistance centre at the FRN facility, the dedicated staff will toil with you maintaining comfortable proximity all over your treatment in understanding of sober living, ensuring the implementation of an effective, proven aftercare plan for you to achieve the self-committed goal of sobriety. Dual Diagnosis wants their patients to be successful in any sober living facility they opt for after completing the treatment, even if they don’t opt for our aftercare services for sober living.
Ben Lesser is one of the most sought-after experts in health, fitness and medicine. His articles impress with unique research work as well as field-tested skills. He is a freelance medical writer specializing in creating content to improve public awareness of health topics. We are honored to have Ben writing exclusively for Dualdiagnosis.org.