Completing treatment is a significant step in the recovery journey. Now that you’ve been through detox and residential treatment, you may not be sure you can just go home and make a new life for yourself. It takes a lot of courage to admit you need more time to get a sure footing in your sobriety. If you want to keep your freedom and learn to discipline your schedule around the fresh start you need, a sober living home might be what you’re looking for.
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What’s a Sober Living Home?
Sober living homes, which are sometimes referred to as halfway houses or dry houses, are a place where someone can make the transition from rehab to the real world. They don’t have the same level of structure as the rehab program, but they do offer a safe and supportive place where people can work on slowly integrating back to society. Organizations like the National Institute on Drug Abuse recommends that people stay for at least 90 days in these homes, but there is usually no limit on how long you’ll be allowed to stay, provided you follow the rules and attend things like group meetings regularly.
Renaissance Ranch’s Sober Living Homes
Renaissance Ranch’s Outpatient Sober Living Home provides a safe and structured environment where you can live while enrolled in our outpatient program. Sober living can help you add a level of accountability in early sobriety that you may not be able to find in your home environment.
Our sober living homes can help add structure to your day with on-site staff and regular groups. Our groups provide a total of six to seven hours of supervision and accountability Monday through Thursday and four hours from Friday to Sunday. The structured environment of our sober living homes allows Renaissance Ranch staff to know what is going on in your personal life, including how you are maintaining your sobriety in real life and what is happening with your continued therapy. Knowing this can help us prepare you for recovery outside of a treatment setting.
All About You
The sober living home at Renaissance Ranch is all-inclusive so that you can focus on healing. You’ll learn healthy life skills and the importance of self-reflection, all while connecting with a community of men who know what you’re dealing with. Groups are organized and scheduled, so you don’t have to worry about what to do with your time.
Studies show that stable housing, accountability, and the structure of sober living homes will increase your chances of success in recovery. After getting sober, the real, deeply personal work begins. While under the influence, you only fed your addiction; your life revolved around substance use. Sobriety is more complex but also far more fulfilling. You are starting from scratch and laying a foundation for the kind of life you want to live. Sober living homes can help you create the foundation for building something solid.
Family Resources
Renaissance Ranch’s sober living home provides your family with time to mend away from you. They deserve a chance to explore their own thoughts and feelings about your sobriety. Doing this will help cut codependent ties and give your loved ones the space to cope with the differences they’ll see in you.
Our sober living home brings independence with added support. You’ll have to explain to your family and loved ones why you need this for yourself. If you’re worried you might not be able to do this on your own, Renaissance Ranch will be there with you through every step of the process. The Family Program is multi-dimensional with workshops, counseling, and visits for your loved ones to process their emotions.
Emotional and Mental Wellbeing
Emotional and mental wellbeing is necessary for sustained sobriety. Confronting pain and trauma is part of healing. Unresolved issues can manifest as deep-seated anxieties, PTSD, and in many other ways. Renaissance Ranch has a team of qualified staff who provide treatment plans according to your needs. This way, you’ll get acquainted with yourself in a safe environment.
In a sober living home, you’ll be given some breathing room from the distractions at home. It’s a perfect environment to find out about self-care and what it looks like for you. You’ll engage in mindfulness and meditation practice. While using, you’re not present; that’s the point of using, not to experience now. Mindfulness is only experiencing now. During chores and other seemingly mundane activities, you’re afforded the opportunity to practice mindfulness.
Consistent Life Monitoring
Many support groups meet with participants once a week for a few hours. Though this does create some level of commitment and can be productive, the time is usually split monitoring several individuals within a group. In sober living homes, staff members are usually on site for several hours each day, every day of the week. This gives them more time with the individuals residing in the home. Naturally, this provides a chance for the counselors to monitor the various aspects of the participants’ lives and fully evaluate the effectiveness of treatment paths.
Accountability
The additional monitoring helps to add an extra level of accountability. While the individuals live in the house, the counselors have additional access to the intricacies of their lives. As the counselors are constantly around, they can help make sure that the participants are keeping their commitments and sticking to their agreed-upon treatment paths. This can help keep the individuals’ recovery process on track.
Discipline & Rules
When you’re in a drug or alcohol addiction program you live by a very strict set of rules, which helps contribute to success for many people. Leaving the program means that you leave the disciplined environment, which can make it difficult to avoid the temptation of falling back into the same old habits. A sober living home can help maintain some of the discipline that helped with your success in the rehab program, such as enforcing a regular curfew and forbidding the use of alcohol or drugs.
Transition Time
For many people, the most difficult thing about sobriety is transitioning back to the life that you lived before you entered a rehab program. That means being back around people who may be enabling your drug or alcohol use, or getting back to the daily stresses and triggers that contributed to your drug and alcohol use. Many people successfully transition from rehab back to real life, and many remain sober for the rest of their life, but having a way to soften the blow with a transition period in a sober living home can help.
Meeting Like-Minded Individuals
Another advantage of sober living homes is you’ll meet people like you. Together you’ll adjust to 12-Step programs and expectations. Everyone will be discovering how to express their feelings and writing about their personal experiences. You won’t be alone.
The Sober Brain
In recovery, you have to rewire your brain. Luckily, that’s a natural function occurring over time. Neuroplasticity serves to allow the neurons to form new connections. Neurogenesis means that in the dentate gyrus, new neurons are being made.
Both neuroplasticity and neurogenesis occur during our lifetimes, even throughout adulthood, which means we can form new neural pathways. Through physical activity, environmental enrichment, and challenging ourselves to try new things, you’re developing a healthier brain.
When you were using drugs or alcohol, you trained your brain to depend on a temporary dopamine hit and the easy “joy” it brought. Now you have to sustain a healthy balance. The highs won’t be stratospheric, and the lows won’t be abysmal. You can’t do this without changing your habits. A sober living home allows you to change your practices safely and confidently.
Take charge of your sobriety with a bit of help and guidance. Time away from home can provide perspective. Our sober living home at Renaissance Ranch provides a space to think and reflect and form a future plan, all while being encouraged and supported. Sober living in homes can increase the odds of successful recovery. Renaissance Ranch will assess you to ascertain what level of care you’ll need. We’ll formulate a treatment plan tailored to you and the therapy modalities that are appropriate for your needs. We’ll feed and house you so you can dedicate yourself to your sobriety. When you graduate from the program, we’ll still be here as your brotherhood. Renaissance Ranch is committed to quality care that doesn’t end when you get sober. We want you to lead a meaningful life full of joy and love. Call Renaissance Ranch at (801) 308-8898 to find out more about our sober living home today.