Having a Stable and Safe Place to Live is Part of Recovery

What a Drug Rehab Should Have: Stability

When someone has become trapped in drug or alcohol abuse, he has lost a lot of the usual basic elements of his life. He may have even lost the home he was living in or his family may have said he cannot come back until he has changed his habits. Because he has intense cravings and the desire to avoid withdrawal, an addict is only thinking of how he can get more drugs or drink. Finding a stable home environment probably is not at the top of his priorities. He has lost many skills and friends due to things he has done that he would never have considered before substance abuse.

Finding a Place to Live is Important to Getting Back on One’s Feet

However, once he has decided to get clean, the recovering alcoholic or drug user may face yet another challenge. Finding a rehab program that he is confident will teach him the skills he needs to remain sober after he has completed rehab may be difficult. A stable and safe place to live is vital to recovery, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s guidelines. When one has lost his home and his loved ones and his own self-respect is gone, it is difficult to make correct choices. He should restore his self-respect and find a decent place to live in order to make forward progress and be confident that he will remain sober after rehab. A safe and stable home can help ensure his sobriety will last.

Narconon Life Skills Help A Recovering Addict Plan a Safe Home

A large component of the unique Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program involves teaching a recovering person life skills. These are a very important part of the eight-step comprehensive rehab program. Restoring self-respect and learning to plan a home for the future comes about gradually by learning and integrating many skills from several of the courses the recovering drug user or alcoholic studies on this part of the program.

On one of the courses, he learns how to recover his own integrity and moral values. This course helps him to handle issues of the past and things he did which he is not proud of. It also helps him take responsibility for those things he has done to others. This can alleviate a lot of his guilt and make it possible to think more clearly when planning future actions.

Another course teaches him step-by-step formulas he can use in order to improve things in his life. In planning for the future, he will need these tools to help him expand any particular area of life, including planning his new home. This course teaches him tools he can apply to any situation to make things better. The application of all these tools results in visibly improving conditions around him. Knowing he has done so can help improve his self-respect.

By the time he finishes studying all five of the Narconon life skills courses, he is ready to make a plan for the future, without the need for drugs or alcohol. During this step, he will be assisted as needed by a Narconon staff member. He can plan things very specifically, including where he will live, how he will support himself, and how he will maintain his sobriety even in the face of challenges after graduation. This means that they are more capable of also maintaining their self-respect and a safe place to live.

Garret Found His Home and his Sobriety at Narconon

Garret’s mother was fortunate to have found Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma for her son in what he described as a “last-ditch effort to save my life and hopefully get me back in line with myself.” Garret described his life while he was addicted. He was stealing to maintain his habit, sleeping in garages in the middle of winter and begging for coffee from nearby McDonald’s. He finally returned to his family’s house in an act of desperation, realizing he might be going back to jail for stealing from them. But he was fortunate to have a loving mother who found help for him at Narconon in Oklahoma.

Garret said his life after completing the Narconon program is drastically different. “It is 180 degrees now, the change in my life today. It’s amazing. I’ve got colleagues who are supportive… I wake up every morning now thinking today is the day that something really cool is going to happen.”

Garret found a home and job and new life with the help he received at Narconon. He says he notices all the small wonderful things in life that he never used to notice. He added, “For some people, it may be mundane but for me, it’s awesome to be alive and be myself again.”

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