What is a sober living environment?
Sober living environments or SLE’s as they are commonly referred to are residences that serve as an interim or transitional place to stay when an individual has undergone an addiction treatment and recovery program and is in the earlier stages of recovery. SLE’s provide the recovering individual with a safe and supportive residence that is structured and enhances the recovery process. In the beginning, these residences were referred to as halfway houses that served the needs of alcoholics and recently released prisoners.
The SLE originated on the US west coast but sober living environments can now be found in every state. Compared to other types of transitional residences, SLE’s provide the recovering alcoholic or drug addicts with a number of benefits that the other facilities don’t. Most of these residences are structured around a number of recovery programs as well as recovery therapies. Additionally, each one has different requirements and rules for their residents to adhere to but the 5 most common are:
- Alcohol and drugs are not permitted on your person or the property
- You will undergo alcohol and drug testing on a random basis
- You must attend mandatory AA or NA meetings on a weekly basis
- You must be accepted by the peer group of the residence before you can move in
- You must be responsible at all times and pay your monthly bills on time
Interestingly enough, sober living environments are a relatively new phenomenon, so very little research has been conducted in order to determine how successful the transitional environment really is. However, there are many recovering alcoholics and drug addicts who have stated that sober living environments played a significant role in their recovery which impacted their lives positively.
The downside of sober living environments is that there are so many of them in existence today that the selection process is oftentimes difficult and very frustrating. The individual who is looking for sober living environments is confronted with far too many choices to make the decision making process easy. In many cases, the individual gets so frustrated that they eventually give up and try transisitioning back into society on their own. This usually results in relapsing back into their addictions.
Our locator site is here to help you continue recovering
We know the importance of recovering sufficiently so that when an individual returns home to their community that they remain substance-free for life. Treatment 4 Drugs can refer you into a number of different sober living environments so that you can learn additional relapsing prevention techniques and gain confidence in your sobriety.