Choosing a Sober House
When alcoholism takes over a person’s life, various areas of their life may have been damaged due to their excessive alcohol abuse, the top of which being their psychical health and their social life.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, people who suffer from alcoholism often spend the majority of their time drinking and making sure they can get alcohol. In addition, a large portion of their time also goes to recovering from alcohol’s effects. This causes most people to avoid other activities and their responsibilities.
For example, many people lose touch with how to properly socialize and maintain relationships when they constantly abuse alcohol, this results in many alcoholics losing their close friends and pulling away from their family. Most alcoholics also lose their jobs, and shun themselves from society. Recovering from the social damage that their disease of alcoholism has caused them may take time, and sober houses help recovering alcoholics relearn the social skills they lost.
A sober house is a place where people live after they have received treatment for their alcohol addiction and dependency. At a sober house, a person will begin to develop their social skills again by living with other people in the house, and sharing responsibilities. It is basically like living with a family again under one roof, except there is supervision to help assist when needed.
How to Choose the Best Sober House
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information and National Institutes of Health, finding a living environment that supports recovery is a challenge for most people, but it is important because friends, family, and roommates who encourage substance use or do not care about recovery can damage the progress that a person made in treatment.
Before a person steps right back in to their old life, which may involve people who are bad influences on them, they may want to strengthen their social skills and learn to manage their addiction better. A sober house can provide them with this opportunity. However, choosing the right sober house is an obstacle that a person must first achieve.
In order to choose the right sober house a person needs to conduct research and consider several different factors. First, they must figure out how much money they can afford. If they cannot afford one, then they must see if any free sober houses have available room.
Second, they should consider the environment. For example, if a person feels more comfortable around women than they do men, then they will want to live with only women, or if they are religious then they should attend a religious sober house. Third, they need to make sure they like the location of the sober house and its surroundings, and fourth, they should consider the activities that the house incorporates into their treatment and make that they are okay with them.
All in all a person should make sure to find a sober house that they are comfortable in, because they will be living at this house for a prolonged period of time.