Where are the best halfway houses in South Florida?
Will a luxury sober living near me keep my son safe? What is the best safe sober living South Florida has to offer? Is there a sober living environment that provides a warm and loving home, where a young man can recover safely?
When a mother is looking for the best sober homes in Fort Lauderdale, she wants a place where her son will feel at home. He should have strong male role models, and an environment of solid recovery.
A sober house should not be a place where new residents are at risk. Whether it is a luxury sober home, or one of the many standard halfway houses in Broward County, a recovery residence should be somewhere a mother can drop off her son, and then sleep at night, knowing that he is safe.
The best sober homes in Fort Lauderdale provide structured living built around a program of recovery. Male sober living provides a safe place for men to live, work, play, and grow in their recovery, forming new, healthy friendships.
High end sober living does not have to only mean amenities and luxurious accomodations. A luxury halfway house should go above and beyond appearances, and provide the best recovery program possible.
A common theme that I see often in addiction treatment is a frustrated mother who loves her addicted son, and wants the best for him.
It is not easy, watching someone destroy their own life, even when you understand that it is a mental health condition, and not at all a moral failing. In the book, Overcoming Opioid Addiction by Adam Bisaga, MD, one of my favorite books on addiction treatment, by the way, Dr. Bisaga describes what he sees as the ideal way to address this situation. Unfortunately, there is an early stage in a person’s addiction where they are not at all ready to accept any help in quitting drugs or alcohol.
While very frustrating, there is almost no good solution to helping someone who is in this precontemplation stage. The best we can do is to provide harm reduction, meaning a safe environment that protects our loved one until they are ready to get help.
Dr. Bisaga recommends keeping an addicted adult child at home, if possible. At home, it is possible to give Narcan, if needed, and ensure that your loved one is safe.
But, what happens when your son who is using drugs or drinking is destructive or abusive, because of their drug use, drinking, or shady friends? How do you keep your addicted child safe, yet also keep yourself and the rest of your family safe?
A halfway house for recovering addicts may be the solution. Addiction recovery is not easy. Transitional housing, such as a sober living house can provide a strict, yet loving environment for a young adult who is not quite ready to move back home.
Sober living and sober housing is often used right after a patient completes residential treatment. Parents are often not prepared to accept their son back into their home, right after a month of in-house rehab.
A sober living facility provides a transitional housing environment where a resident can continue on their journey of recovery. Sober living home residents study recovery together and attend recovery meetings, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, together.
Can the sober houses fort lauderdale offers provide a safe place in early recovery, even in the precontemplation stage?
Most sober housing is intended for people who have just left inpatient treatment, and are continuing with outpatient treatment. A person who is not ready to give up drugs or alcohol may not be an ideal client to accept into a sober living community.
One issue with having someone still in active drug addiction moving into a group home is that the new resident may have a negative influence on other residents. Recovery housing is intended for people who are ready for recovery.
Still, I believe that our region, in Broward County and the Fort Lauderdale area, could benefit from a special type of sober home that allows for residents at all stages. Of course, it would require more intensive guidance and supervision, but having recovery housing for young men who cannot live at home, but need a home, would be ideal.
There is a need for such a service, because there are many mothers, and fathers, who are at the end of their rope, caring for their addicted son, yet they are not willing to exercise tough love, kicking them out to the streets.
Of course, there is the option for these parents to put their son in extended residential rehab, using the Marchman Act. The Marchman Act is a Florida law that allows parents to put their child who is struggling with drug addiction or alcoholism into a rehab for up to six months.
Is it better to force a child into long-term rehab, keep them at home, or put them in some sort of sober living rehab, where they can be watched by a sober living professional? Making a decision about a treatment facility, or keeping the addicted child at home is not easy.
No one wants to take a chance and make the wrong decision. Forcing a child into rehab can make them resentful, and maybe less likely to accept help in the future.
On the other hand, forced rehab can be life-saving, taking the child out of harm’s way. A substance use disorder can expose a person to dangerous street chemicals, such as fentanyl analogs and other dangerous psychoactive drugs.
Can medication-assisted treatment make the addiction recovery process easier? Are there Suboxone friendly sober living homes?
One issue with medication assisted treatment, or MAT, is that many sober living homes do not allow for it. It is not easy to find a Suboxone friendly sober living home.
This is unfortunate. Suboxone is a life-saving drug that can help to get someone away from active drug abuse. Substance abuse treatment at all levels should be Suboxone compatible.
The fear of sober living home managers is that residents will continue substance abuse in their sober living houses. They do not want to deal with relapses in the sober house.
Living in a sober living home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or anywhere for that matter, means living with other men who want to recover. They value their sobriety and do not want to deal with temptations or reminders of their past drug using.
A sober living home owner has enough to deal with, helping residents to get to their doctors for behavioral health issues, and dealing with other mental illness related problems. Peer support and enforcing house rules are priorities for sober home managers and owners.
A transitional sober living environment is a unique kind of treatment program.
People may not think of sober living as a part of addiction treatment. It may be simply considered to be a living arrangement for people who are getting started in recovery.
Yet, sober living should be thought of as part of the medical addiction treatment plan. A properly designed halfway house program can make all the difference in helping a young man to overcome his addiction and get started on the path of life-long recovery.
Sober living can be as important as a detox treatment center or rehab. In some cases, in can be even more important.
Several years ago, I took a tour of a sober living home for men in the Fort Lauderdale area. It was considered to be a luxury sober living home, but it appeared to be a regular home, not a fancy mansion or luxury condo.
The rooms were large, with two residents to a room, and there was a nice, well kept pool at the back. The kitchen was a bit messy, but the owner apologized and stated that it is not easy to get the young men to keep it clean, even though they are assigned kitchen chores.
On the walls, I noted that there were schedules, assigments, and messages of recovery. Residents were expected to attend meetings, and they were expected to perform urine drug screens upon request.
In the backyard, there was a large open area where there were folding chairs placed in rows. I asked the home manager what this area was for.
He explained that, in addition to residents traveling together to local meetings, they also brought meetings to the home. This arrangement benefited the home residents, but also the local recovery community.
It is not easy for recovery meetings to find a building to rent. While churches are often open to the idea of having 12-step, or other types of recovery meetings in their buildings, for a low rent cost, they often turn the recovery groups away eventually.
At some point, the church members may become upset with cigarette butts, bad language, and crowds outside the church in the evening. Meetings have often had to move from one location to another.
The idea of having recovery meetings at a sober living home is a great idea. The sober home is not a church, so there are no higher standards that a church might hold the meeting attendees to.
Meetings at the sober home also create an opportunity to bring in recovering people from outside. Home residents can mingle with other people in recovery and grow their recovery network.
Is it worth bringing my son to a sober living home in Fort Lauderdale if he keeps relapsing?
While sober homes do not want problem residents, it may still be worth approaching the management to ask if they will accept a young man who does not have much sobriety time. When living at home, he may feel as if he can still get away with old behaviors.
While the obsessions, compulsions, and cravings of addiction can be overwhelming, the prefrontal cortex of the brain has the power to reason and overcome addictive urges. When a young man who cannot stop using drugs at home suddenly finds himself living in a sober living facility, he may wake up and realize that it is time for a change.
Sober living, for this particular young man, could be the last chance before mandatory long-term rehab. While he may have evaded his parents requests for drug testing, he will not be able to do the same with his sober home manager.
A sober home may serve as the transitional program that helps to take someone from the precontemplation stage of addiction into the next stages, where they are finally ready to accept help. A sober home that is open to the possibilities of working with clients who are receiving medical treatment for addiction could make a huge difference in their lives.
Would it be possible for a sober home to support Suboxone therapy? What about the Bernese Method of microdosing buprenorphine, to help a client transition on to medication assisted treatment?
How about The Sinclair Method for reducing alcohol consumption? Will there ever be a sober living arrangement that can support this program, where people are using naltrexone in combination with alcohol to reach pharmacological extinction, where they no longer crave alcohol?
There is a need for a different kind of sober living home environment.
I understand that a traditional sober home living arrangement, where residents are fully alcohol free, may not be prepared to tolerate residents who are following a program that involves continued, limited drinking. But, is there a place for a dedicated Sinclair Method sober home?
Of course, there are also many other drugs that people can be addicted to. Sober living facilities cater to recovering cannabis addicts, cocaine addicts, meth addicts, and many others.
Each drug of abuse has its own properties and affects the human brain in different ways. Helping someone overcome a heroin or fentanyl is different from helping someone overcome meth or coke addiction.
In an ideal world, sober living in Fort Lauderdale, where I live and run my addiction treatment focused medical practice, would exist in many forms. Instead of new clients being turned away, because they do not meet the standards of a particular sober living house, they would have options of different types of sober homes that meet their particular needs.
In active addiction, a person’s world shrinks to being all about the drugs, and the guilt, shame, and paranoia that comes with using drugs or alcohol. A person living in a room with the window shades closed and the door locked, hiding from every sound, in fear, is not living a free life. There is no joy in using drugs or alcohol in a dark room, living in fear and pain.
A new kind of sober living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Walking along the Riverwalk path in downtown Fort Lauderdale, I have enjoyed seeing the beautiful new buildings that have gone up over the past few years. The area has changed significantly.
The path where drug dealers used to hide in the shadows is now used by families, out for a walk with the family dog, or their newborn baby. Tall new buildings, with unique architectures, tower and glisten in the sun, over the sparkling water of the New River.
There are boats passing by and the sound of music and laughter. I wonder if any of those buildings could possibly house a sober living facility. I imagine that it would be a great area to recover from addiction, being able to enjoy the happiness and joy of beautiful weather and beautiful surroundings.
There are shops, museums, festivals, and much more. The beaches are a short drive from the downtown area. Residents of Fort Lauderdale who struggle with addiction can recover and enjoy living in their wonderful city in recovery.
With recovery comes freedom, and the freedom to live life the way you want to live it. I encourage mothers who are struggling with addicted sons, or daughters, to explore all options in finding help for their children.
