The addiction crisis in the United States has also created a need for reliable and trustworthy sober living accommodations. What were once called “halfway houses” began from humble roots. Largely run by non-professionals at first, they provided a place to live for people in early recovery beginning to put their lives back together. The sober living homes model has undergone a great deal of change in the past 20 years or so though. This article explores the evolution of the sober living model into what it is today and why sober living is so important.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
“Halfway houses” as they were once called came from very simple beginnings. People who completed detoxification or the standard 28-day inpatient drug and alcohol treatment programs often weren’t ready to return straight home. We’ve known for a very long time that early sobriety is usually the most precarious phase of the adventure. People in the very beginning of their recovery, whether it’s their first go around or now, are usually emotionally raw and can be especially vulnerable to temptation.
So the first sober living homes offered little more than a clean place to stay sober for a while. Shared bedrooms are the norm, both for economy and accountability. Any reputable sober living home, even in the early days, would emphasize accountability. Once quick drug screens that could be conducted without a laboratory became available, sober living homes quickly adopted their use for random drug screens. A curfew and a set of rules and consequences for violating those rules were also the standard.
Staying Sober Takes More Than 3 Hots and a Cot
The truth is most sober living homes provide only a bed and laundry facilities. Residents are generally expected to work and purchase their own food. But the better ones foster a genuine sense of camaraderie. Pooling resources and preparing communal meals, for example. For some residents, life in a sober living home may be the closest thing they’ve experienced to family. To be sure, the experience is a meaningful one for most people. Living in close quarters with others of the same gender for several months tends to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The beauty of the arrangement is that everyone is facing similar challenges. Despite what may be wide differences in economic or social class, age or culture, the men or women living together in a sober living home all have that one thing in common. Drugs and/or alcohol got the upper hand on them. Addiction dealt them a savage enough blow to knock them off course and land them in substance abuse treatment (if they were lucky) and sober living quarters afterward. That shared experience can help to form some powerful bonds and even some unlikely friendships.
Addiction and Recovery Transcend All in Sober Living
The central theme of life for anyone in a sober living home is the cycle of addiction and recovery. Namely breaking that cycle and remaining on the path to recovery. There is something of an unspoken bond between sober living home residents. Even though they may have been complete strangers when they met, everyone knows that everyone knows. You know that your roommate or neighbor has had some taste of the kind of pain you’ve been through.
They know what a hellish rollercoaster ride addiction can be. Even though their story may not be the same as yours, there are enough similarities for a bond, or at least mutual respect to form on that basis alone. So, the sober living home experience can be therapeutic and even cathartic in a sense for many people. That is provided the sober living community is well-managed and ethical, but not all of them were, especially in the earlier days.
A Few Bad Apples in the Sober Living Barrel
By and large, most sober living homes were run by well-intentioned people who were often in recovery themselves. While the majority of them may not have been mental health professionals or counselors, that didn’t mean they couldn’t play an important role in a person’s recovery. Far from it. Running an ethical, disciplined “halfway house” for people in early recovery is providing an essential service.
But, like any business, there were some people who got involved in running halfway houses for the wrong reasons. They saw them as a money-making opportunity and cared little for the welfare of the people who were trusting them with their delicate recovery. Because people usually share bedrooms in a sober living home, a person could buy a 3-bedroom house in a residential neighborhood and put two men or women in each bedroom and charge each of them $150-200 per week for rent.
Vetting Sober Homes to Protect People in Recovery
That generally covered utilities as well, but it still turned out to be a potentially profitable business. Especially if you weren’t investing any money or time back into it. Unfortunately, there were some people who did that. But the recovery community also tends to be pretty vigilant about looking out for one another and self-policing. So over time, sober living homes have become more more standardized and regulated.
Most states have at least one organization now responsible for vetting and certifying sober living homes. There are also national organizations like the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) which provide the same sort of vetting and certification. That along with the relationships that the best sober living facilities usually have with treatment centers, have helped the sober living model evolve and mature into what it is today.
Why Sober Living Homes Are a Vital Resource for the Newly Recovered
As we explained in the introduction, sober living homes and supportive houses fill a critical need that is as acute as ever. Very few people can simply go to treatment for 28 days and pop out ready to return to life at full speed and expect to be successful. We know now that recovery is a lifetime commitment. It is a lifestyle choice, not a process with a beginning and an end. Those early days in new recovery are a delicate time when fellowship, guidance, and accountability couldn’t be more important.
For some people, those ‘training wheels’ could literally mean the difference between life and death. Today, the best sober living residences are more instrumental than ever. Many host 12-step meetings onsite, help residents find jobs, begin/reenroll in school, and reunite with family. They help them find mentors and sponsors. Some sober living homes even have their own integrated outpatient services. Most work with a drug and alcohol treatment center that provides IOP and/or PHP treatment that residents can participate in.
Diamond Recovery is Raising Awareness
At Diamond Recovery we feel it is our responsibility to not only provide world-class treatment for substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions– but to raise awareness. Helping people with substance use and mental health disorders become more visible and better understood is an essential part of the healing process, both for them and society as a whole.
If you or someone you care about could benefit from sober living or treatment for a substance use disorder or you just have questions about Diamond Recovery and what we do, please give us a call at (844) 909-2525.
