Reaching full sobriety is a long journey that is made up of many parts. For most addicts, rehabilitation is the biggest step towards beating their disease. However, the mindset of many addicts is that once rehab is over, than they can easily enter society without experiencing a relapse. This is not true. Making the transition from a rehabilitation center straight back into society can prove to be disastrous.
Imagine treating an addiction like a serious injury, i.e. breaking your leg. The first step to repairing a broken leg is to wear a cast until the bone heals. However, once the cast is removed one should not run on the recently injured leg until it has been properly strengthened. If the person does immediately go for a run, they will be extremely susceptible to reinjuring their leg. It is very similar to one attempting an immediate entry back into society from a rehabilitation center. In a rehabilitation center one is under constant monitoring and receives constant attention (a cast). Once the patient leaves rehab, he/she will need to gradually enter society in order to avoid an imminent relapse. If the patient were to go to a halfway house, he/she would have the opportunity to gradually enter society again and strengthen their will to be fully sober for the rest of their lives.
Halfway Houses can serve as a bridge from a rehabilitation center into society. The gradual amount of monitoring from constant to limited will help the transition greatly. You have more freedoms in a sober living environment while still having standards, both medically and mentally to keep you on track. Medically, most houses will have random drug testing to ensure that all of the residents are staying on course. For example, if a resident were to fail a drug test than they will receive immediate attention and be placed back into a rehabilitation center. In addition, halfway houses also have connections to local medical professionals for additional help.
Mentally, a halfway house provides a very social environment that provides a lot of support. Residents will work together and serve as mentors for each other to help everyone achieve their common goal. Halfway houses also have mentors on their staff that have dealt with addiction and will help the residents through their difficult journey to full sobriety. Sober living environments serve as the last leg of the journey to reaching full sobriety. Reaching full sobriety is extremely difficult without that gradual transition from constant monitoring to no monitoring at all. Don’t let recovery be more difficult than it already is and make sure that you don’t cut any corners in order to achieve full sobriety.
