What Is a Halfway House, and How Does It Work?

“What next?”

Anyone fresh out of a rehab center has thought this at least once. A rehabilitation center helps you channel your energy towards fighting the urge against substance abuse while staying there. Once out, you are still vulnerable and can run into the risk of relapse if you return to your regular life. Specific external triggers such as people, places, or even things can tempt people to abuse. To break the pattern, checking yourself into a sober living home or a halfway house is elementary. If you wonder, “what’s a halfway house?” or “how does a halfway house work?” This article is for you.

What is a Halfway Home?

A halfway house is a transitional place for someone committed to becoming sober. Those living inside learn or re-learn the necessary skills to reintegrate themselves into society and become accountable for their safety and wellbeing. They are defined as halfway houses because they are halfway from being out of rehab and going back to completely living independently. Most people confuse between a halfway home and sober living home, but they are two different entities serving the same purpose.

Difference between a Halfway house and a sober living home?

While both institutes provide accommodation for people working on addiction or substance abuse, the core difference lies in how halfway houses in Nashville Tennessee work. Halfway houses are run by government agencies and are devoted to housing people who have been court-ordered to complete their stay for a predetermined period. The funding for running a halfway house comes directly from state sponsorship. Most of the time, the people living in a halfway house had been previously incarcerated and part of a drug treatment program during their term. Yet, halfway houses are not only for convicted felons. So unless mandated by the court, there are no other ways on how to get into a halfway house.

Sober living houses are a supportive place where people can enroll toward working on achieving complete sobriety. Most of the sober living Nashville is owned and run by individuals passionate about helping others kick the same habit they were once prey to. While the stay is unlimited, you need to provide by paying rent monthly and helping with household chores.

Halfway house or Sober living House: Which to choose?

Before returning to everyday life in society, it is essential to have long-term goals that are harmonic with your motive to remain sober. Either institute provides the following benefits:

• Accountability
• Building resistance to environmental and emotional triggers
• Stick to personal commitments
• Giving back to the society
• Comraderies towards other residents

How is life in Halfway homes?

Most rehabs will require everyone in a halfway house to have completed medical detox and a 30 to 90-day inpatient or outpatient program. There are two types of Halfway houses:

1. Sharing basis to Living Alone
2. Living alone to Sharing basis

In the first type, the person lives in a dorm-like arrangement for easier monitoring. In the second type, the person stays isolated from others and has to work towards curbing their desires before being introduced into a sharing basis. From social interaction, you make new friends and share their journey on achieving sobriety. As you become more and more accountable, the number of people sharing is reduced till you can live by yourself. 

Irrespective of the sharing model, everyone has to follow the halfway house rules and regulations. Everyone living inside is expected to:

• Remain sober
• Submit to random drug and/or alcohol testing
• Contribute to the house
• Attend house meetings
• Respect the property and space of other residents and staff members
• Avoiding fighting with other residents
• Adhere to a curfew
• Attend a 12-step or similar program

Benefits of living in a halfway house

For a person recovering from alcohol or drug abuse addiction, living a life free of triggers is important. They need the surrounding environment to be supportive and be less restrictive compared to a rehab. The purpose of a halfway house is to provide such a sober living environment. The following are the benefits of living in a halfway home:

Feel more responsible

For people in recovery, learning to be accountable is a crucial skill. There are rules of halfway houses that occupants must observe to establish boundaries. Many individuals benefit from this since it helps them adjust to the outside world’s demands, understand that authority isn’t bad, and feel accountable for themselves and the people in their lives.

Realizations of a Better Sober Life

Everyone who lives in a halfway home must abstain from drinking or using drugs for the duration of their stay. This eliminates temptation and demonstrates, to those in recovery, that an eventful life can be lived without reliance on narcotics. Attendance in Alcoholics Anonymous or other 12-step groups is also required in many halfway homes. 

Peer-based sobriety

In regular life, many of your peers would continue living in a way that you may be trying to get rid of. Unless you isolate yourself from such a setting, you would be tempted to relapse. However, in a halfway home, you are surrounded by people working on sobering their life. Hence, the peer-based activities will help you become resolute towards sobriety. The time you spend there helps you acclimatize, learn to enjoy sobriety, acquire new life skills, and discover that you can be self-sufficient without the use of alcohol or drugs. Halfway homes also improve patients’ mental health before they return to society.

Wrapping Up

By considering a halfway home, you have taken the first step on the road of self-discovery. On your way to becoming sober, you’ll rediscover a new sense of purpose in life, strengthen your bonds with your loved ones, and rediscover how to enjoy life to the fullest once more. 

Setting aside the challenges you may face, having others around supporting you in your path will help you reach your goal faster.