5 Ways a Halfway House Can Help Recovering Addicts

Your knee-jerk reaction may be to pack-up and head for your current home or the home of a loved one, but the truth is, not many living environments have the sturdy support system necessary for recovery. Your parents, spouse, or roommates might enable your addictive behaviors or refuse to remove your drug of abuse from the premises. So what’s next for you?

Halfway houses are invaluable resources for substance use disorder sufferers, designed to support you in your journey to regain the sober version of yourself. Are you interested in more information? For an in-depth look into the benefits of halfway houses, read on.

What are halfway houses?

A halfway house, also referred to as “a sober living home” in some states, is a transitional facility for individuals recovering from life-altering substance use disorders. Halfway houses offer a solution to slowly wean those struggling from addiction from their treatment facilities into the real world. Prematurely reentering your everyday life can result in devastating relapses that may force the patient to readmit into an inpatient clinic, costing those affected by substance use disorders thousands of dollars and weeks of precious time.

For clarification, do halfway houses offer treatment? Most halfway houses are neither equipped to handle the effects of withdrawal syndrome nor are they permitted to oversee substance use disorder treatment. At their core, these facilities offer a stable and controlled environment to aid those in pursuit of recovery and sobriety.

Who runs sober living and transitional housing? The facilities are neither licensed nor funded by the state or local government. Nonprofit organizations run some, while others are owned and operated by profit-motivated individuals/groups.

If you’ve considered admitting a loved one or you’ve entertained the prospect of enrolling yourself, you’ll need to review some of the ways halfway houses can boost the likelihood of recovery for patients from all walks of life.

1. Constant Guidance and Support

An incentive of halfway houses worth-noting is that you’re always surrounded by a care team that offers guidance and support throughout your recovery journey. You can meet with fellow addicts that offer relatable support and motivation. As they say, there’s strength in numbers, especially in matters of addiction.

House managers and other support staff are also readily available to help these patients when they encounter unexpected speed bumps in their sobriety journey. For instance, if you’re struggling with a craving or suffering from an anxiety attack, the support staff will always listen and coach you through your current predicament.

In most cases, family members and friends will likely offer a helping hand and motivate you with words of encouragement after your therapist/physician discharges you from inpatient care. However, it may be difficult for those unfamiliar with addiction’s complexities to relate to your situation, leading to potentially misguiding advice.

2. Healthy Relationships

In your journey to sobriety, halfway houses help you form sober relationships. Since it’s a controlled environment, there’s no opportunity to indulge in unhealthy and risky relationships that involve substance abuse.

During your stay at a halfway house, you also engage with fellow addicts that are determined to beat addiction. Conferring with like-minded individuals is motivating and drives the desire to change.

A lonely life can be devastating and is a potential recipe for relapse. When abusing drugs, you might have withdrawn from your social circle or felt pushed to the outskirts of society. However, with halfway houses, you’re continually in the presence of individuals with similar experiences. This opportunity lifts the weight of unfortunate stigmas that assert that addictions are rare occurrences or reserved exclusively for folks experiencing homelessness.

As you work to overcome your substance use disorder, you’ll be able to form life-long friendships and family-like relationships. You can carry these relationships into your life of sobriety and establish an invaluable support system.

3. Life Skill Development

When you abuse drugs, you can lose touch with even the most basic skills and healthy habits.  In the epicenter of an all-consuming addiction, activities like exercising,  socializing, and healthy eating are seemingly unattainable goals. Fortunately, when you live in a halfway house, your care team will teach you how to regain these life skills.

As you reach sobriety, halfway house staff will demonstrate interpersonal skills to help you build long-lasting relationships with fellow substance use disorder sufferers, colleagues, family members, and old friends. If you’re struggling with addictive behaviors and feel disconnected from your everyday rituals, you can practice practical skills like laundry, cleaning, and other household chores during your stay.

4. Independence

Halfway houses coach you to be independent once again. Restoring independence is a critical step in ensuring you maintain a positive outlook even as you recover.

To facilitate your financial independence, halfway houses provide you with skills that make you employable in the job market. Depending on your halfway house of choice, you’ll have the opportunity to acquire invaluable skills, such as money-management skills, driving skills, computer skills, and many others. You can now look forward to earning your income and paying your bills independently.

Beyond financial independence, halfway houses help you take control of your life. Amid a substance use disorder, you may depend on loved ones to fund your everyday activities, tend to household chores, and remind you of self-care rituals. Reject a life of codependency by relearning these essential life skills.

5. Reducing the Chances of Relapse

Halfway houses ensure that residents maintain sobriety, even as they observe a daily routine with more freedom. Due to the high demand for accountability, sober homes verify that you always take steps towards recovery and deter any chance of relapse.

Additionally, to ensure that residents operate in a stable and orderly environment, halfway houses implement a set of rules to improve your chances of maintaining sobriety. These rules will vary from one facility to another, but the most common are:

• Use of drugs and alcohol is prohibited
• No violent conduct
• You must participate in house chores
• Stealing is not allowed
• Attending 12-step and recover programs is mandatory for most facilities

To summarize

Lack of a stable support system is a significant hindrance to those recovering from drug addiction. A questionable living environment derails recovery, even for the most determined individuals. However, thanks to halfway houses, substance use disorder sufferers can enjoy well-structured rehabilitation, easing their road to recovery.

If you or your loved one is looking for a stable home-like environment, look no further. Enroll in a halfway house today.