What Part Do Sober and Transitional Living Play in the Recovery Process?

What Part Do Sober and Transitional Living Play in the Recovery Process?

Although we’re in the middle of a major addiction epidemic, there are still people out there who are beating addiction and getting clean by taking advantage of the many recovery resources available today. It often takes more than just one type of treatment for a person’s sobriety to be sustained long-term, and formulating the best comprehensive treatment plan for you can help you get there.

It’s generally agreed that inpatient care is the most effective type of rehabilitative treatment because it separates patients from the environments and circumstances that are likely to have contributed to their addictions.¹ However, all the good of going to rehab may be undone by going home too soon and, consequently, relapsing soon thereafter. In fact, this could be to blame for the fact that only 30 percent of all people who complete addiction treatment programs are able to remain sober.² But sober and transitional living facilities may provide a solution to this problem.

What Exactly Is Sober and Transitional Living?

Many of us envision that addiction treatment consists of a stint at rehab before the newly sober individual goes home and never touches alcohol or drugs again. In actuality, it very rarely works out that way. More and more people are finding they need something in between their stay in rehab and returning home. That’s where sober living homes and transitional living facilities come in.

Sober and transitional living refers to an interim period between inpatient rehab and the return home after completion of treatment during which time recovering addicts live in a group home where they begin assuming responsibility for their own sobriety. This arrangement is an extension of the rehabilitation period. But instead of just being in treatment, residents are required to pay rent and follow certain rules in order to maintain residency. Assuming they follow the rules, patients can choose to live for weeks, months or even years in these transitional facilities while adjusting to their new lives in sobriety and being part of their communities. Sober and transitional facilities are sometimes called halfway houses as well, and while there’s a slight distinction to be made between the three terms, most people use them interchangeably to a large degree.³

Less Structure Than Rehab, More Structure Than Home

One of several benefits of transitional living is that it offers recovering addicts an intermediate point between rehab and their homes. Rehab offers intensive structure and home offers little to no structure. Transitional and sober living homes split the difference by giving individuals a number of rules by which to abide, while also offering more freedom than a patient would have in rehab. Transitional living helps residents adjust to having some of their freedom back. Meanwhile, they continue to live in a safe, monitored, alcohol- and drug-free environment.

A Period to Practice New Skills

Many of the life skills necessary to be an independent, healthy member of society—such as diet and nutrition, hygiene and addressing one’s medical needs—fade to some degree when a person is in the throes of addiction. As a result, alcohol and drug treatment programs teach recovering addicts important life skills as well as relapse prevention strategies, such as anger management and identifying high-risk situations. An immediate return home after rehab would be a sink-or-swim test of those skills, putting a lot of pressure on newly recovered individuals to immediately take full responsibility for their sobriety as they try to remember and use the skills they learned to maintain their abstinence. However, living in a transitional facility after completing one’s addiction treatment program gives a recovering addict a period during which to practice using those skills.⁴ Being able to practice relapse-prevention skills while in a transitional living home lets a person hone those skills before he or she returns home and must confront situations where faltering could mean relapsing.

Easing Into Accountability

Separating people from their home environments can safeguard them from relapsing, which implies that patients are better able to remain sober when they’re not alone in taking responsibility for their lives. Upon their return home, they immediately become accountable for their sobriety and must use what they learned over the course of treatment to resist the urge to relapse. Unfortunately, many people relapse shortly after returning home from rehab. Conservative estimates are that between 40 and 60 percent relapse within a year and many think the number could be as high as 90 percent.⁵ By delaying the return home with a period in a sober or transitional living facility—where one is surrounded by help and accountability—a patient’s sobriety is protected for a greater amount of time, decreasing the chances of a relapse.

Facilitates a Transition Back Into the Community

Substance abuse becomes the center of every addict’s life, reflected in his or her appearance, behavior, social activity, and just about every other facet of life. After getting sober, that person has to essentially rebuild his or her life, eliminating everything that could threaten newfound recovery and starting anew. It may sound pretty straightforward, but this is a daunting and quite loaded task. If a person were to simply return home after rehab, he or she is essentially jumping right back into the life he or she built as an addict with very little practical experience in putting those relapse-prevention strategies to use.

However, taking some time to reintegrate into one’s community more gradually while living in a transitional facility allows a person in early recovery to begin establishing a support group of individuals—perhaps other residents of the sober home—who are supportive of sobriety.⁶ Even just having social support in place and a vague idea of one’s place in the community can be major contributors to one’s success in sustaining sobriety.

Addiction is lethal, but nobody has to die from this treatable disease. At Rehab International, our goal is to provide the information and resources necessary for people with addiction to reclaim their independence, health and sobriety. For questions, more information, or to speak with one of our admissions coordinators, contact Rehab International today. Sobriety doesn’t have to be a dream. Let us help you make it a reality.

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