What Is Sober Living?
Sober Living Environments (also known as SLEs) are living arrangements used by recovering people to serve as a transitional environment between a rehabilitation center and future life-goals. SLEs came about from the need for individuals to have a safe and supportive environment where people can perform daily activities, while pursuing a life of recovery. These living arrangement are generally meant to provide housing for individuals who have recently come out of a treatment or recovery center. Often treatment centers provide strong structure and individuals benefit greatly from gradually stepping down from being watched constantly while they transition back into the world. While sober living is not a required element of the recovery process, it is highly recommended to make a smooth transition process.
According to research studies, people have generally found that people who stay in sober living arrangement for longer periods of time have better rates of abstinence. Most individuals who stay in a sober living arrangement for less than a few months tend to have lower rates of abstinence.
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What Is Transitional Housing?
Transitional living programs assist individuals in rebuilding their lives after they have graduated from a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program or a treatment center. It is a transittion from intensive treatment for addiction towards living in the real world while maintaining structure in a persons life.
In many transitional housing centers, people with addiction are offered a place to live for a temporary duration while they continue to get a handle on any issues of addiction. This is also a place for those in recovery from addiction to pursue an education or employment as a means to develop real-life skills for whene leave treatment.
In addition, these individuals can use this time to mend any relationships that may have been damaged due to addiction, and learn relapse prevention strategies in order to better ensure that addiction is left in the past, and not something that can hurt anyone in the future. Transitional living centers generally focus on attainable and realistic post-treatment goals to ensure that clients are equipped with the skills and tools to maintain a life of recovery.
Differences for Men & Women?
Men Only: Men only sober living homes allow for males to heal in a well-structured environment without distraction. Typically, men struggle with the expression of emotions and being in touch with their feelings. It is also common for them to face difficulty with asking for help and being able to identify problems or specific weaknesses. Men only sober living environments decrease the need for their competitive nature and potential aggression while in early recovery.
Women Only: Women only sober living homes cater to the healing and needs of females. Women new to recovery are able to feel more open and freer to talk about painful issues or topics. Often times, women who are impacted by drug or alcohol addiction live in an unhealthy and chaotic environment. Unfortunately, this only acts as a reinforcement to her addiction, which commonly results in relapse. Women only sober living houses allow females to develop trust in their peers and build a positive support network.
Co-Ed Sober Living: Co-Ed sober living environments are known to be effective in a lasting recovery from addiction. Although there is not a gender-specific atmosphere, there is still much healing that takes place. In early recovery, having peer support, encouragement and being able to identify with others is important to be successful and prevent relapse.