What to Expect in Sober Living

by treatment

Entering a sober living home can be a little bit like the first day of school. Much like school, we know that the sober living facility will provide us with the tools we need to make a positive impact in our lives, and that through sober living, we can transition into the men we’ve always wanted to be– but it’s no secret that new experiences can be daunting if we’re not sure what to expect.

As a sober living home in the heart of Los Angeles, our sober living facility focuses on two concepts: providing a fun, program-oriented setting where residents can find purpose and progress in their lives, and building an environment where our men learn to flourish without depending on substances. We believe that getting sober means more than just living addiction-free. We believe that it means living independently, confidently, and boldly– and that’s just what we teach our men.

What can I expect in sober living?

The first thing to understand about sober living is that it isn’t a halfway house, nor is it a dedicated treatment center. It’s a place where men that are ready to better themselves come to get the tools they need to do it. Here in Los Angeles, there are plenty of distractions for a young man just getting sober. A sober living home like ours provides a safe space for our men to mature and develop so they can deal with those distractions without fear of relapse.

Furthermore, the sober living concept is one that’s deeply rooted in fellowship and unity. We know that defeating addiction isn’t a one and done process, and that it takes a village of support and guidance to help us continue through recovery– so that’s also a large part of what we provide here. As soon as our men walk through the doors of our sober living facility, they know they’re here for a purpose, and that it isn’t just about not using drugs. They’re here to make a difference in their lives.

When you enter the sober living community, expect to remain very much involved in your treatment. With the number of distractions in big cities like Los Angeles and practically everywhere else, it’s important that we make sure we stay in touch with treatment groups and rehabilitation programs, even if we finished the initial treatment process ages ago. By transitioning into a treatment plan in the sober living facility, we ensure that the good, sustainable behaviors we learned in initial treatment become habits that will stick with us when we’re living on our own.

Additionally, we should expect to have responsibilities in sober living– and lots of them. There’s no better way to learn how to become the best versions of ourselves than to learn concepts like integrity, accountability, and maturity. As grown men living with other grown men, we should expect to be held responsible for our actions, and to pull our own weight when it comes to chores and house rules. The way we see it in the sober living community, we’re all a team. Whether you’re from Los Angeles, Oakland, or somewhere on the other side of the country, what one of us does in the sober living facility affects us all. As we learn responsibility, we also begin to see just how important our actions are to others. Having responsibilities means we have to hold ourselves accountable for taking care of them.

Another big concept of getting sober is discipline. In Los Angeles alone, there are plenty of distractions that could knock us off the straight and narrow path if we aren’t careful. This is what makes discipline in sober living so important. Having discipline in our lives means we know how to control our actions, think before we act, and frequently weigh the pros and cons of our decisions before we make them. In sober living, we learn discipline by learning to adhere to the rules of the house. For instance, one rule here at The Last House is that we cook and eat most meals together as brothers. This means that practically on a daily basis, we’re all required to contribute to the day’s meal. This could include grocery shopping, setting the table, or cleaning up afterwards. Our contribution isn’t punishment– but it is a way to make sure we learn the value of hard work and teamwork. Being disciplined enough to follow the rules and help do something like prepare meals here in sober living helps us get used to maintaining structure in our lives after we graduate. Expect structure and discipline in sober living– because it works!

Finally, expect to work while you get sober. As young men, working to provide for ourselves or others should be as much a way of life as eating or sleeping. If that’s not the case before we enter sober living though, it certainly will become the case by the time we leave. Los Angeles is one of the world’s busiest cities, and there’s ample opportunity for us to contribute our unique skills and talents to the workforce. Learning the value of working for our own money now can help us start a habit of working, maintaining a job, and providing security for ourselves and our families in the long run. So Monday to Friday, to the office we’ll go.

Sober living is a rewarding method to learn how to become the best versions of ourselves we can be. The Last House is a Los Angeles-based men’s sober living facility that doesn’t just help men focus on getting sober, but provides them with the skills they need to become independent, courageous, and contributing members of society. Every man that enters our sober living facility has the potential to be a pillar in his community. We help him see the potential he had all along. Call us at 1-866-677-0090 to get started today.

Acceptance, Change, Knowledge: Dissecting the Serenity Prayer Part II

by mental healthtreatment

While the surface-level meaning of the Serenity Prayer offers powerful concepts like serenity, courage, and wisdom, it’s the deeper meaning of the Serenity Prayer’s core concepts that can help us apply its words to our recovery journeys more effectively.

As with everything in recovery, the more steps we take to give meaning to what we learn and practice, the more likely we’ll be inclined to continue learning and practicing even after we leave the sober living facility.

The first part of the Serenity Prayer asks for peace to accept what we can’t change. Acceptance is a huge first step in our recovery journey, because it’s only after we accept the inevitable that we can begin working on the things that we can change in our lives. When we ask God to help us accept what we can’t change, we’re removing the power of unsurety, doubt and control from our lives. When we accept who we are, the nature of addiction, and how it can be beaten, we return the power of our future back to the only ones who should have control of it: ourselves.

The meaning of change in the Serenity Prayer is action-based. Once we’ve accepted what can’t be changed, all that lies ahead of us is what can be changed. With a clear mind and nothing we’re still holding on to, we’re asking God to give us the strength to take action in our lives. Recovery happens when we give ourselves the green light to start sifting through issues and situations in our lives, sorting them out, and correcting them for the better.

Finally, knowledge lies at the crux of every action we take in recovery, and it’s fitting that knowledge brings up the end of the Serenity Prayer. When we ask God to give us the “wisdom to know the difference” between what we can and can’t change, we’re asking Him to show us the people that will help us discern the things about ourselves that we might not be able to discern by ourselves. We’re also asking Him to help us learn about ourselves. Each day is a day to learn something new about ourselves, and when we gain knowledge in recovery, we gain confidence and independence. When it comes to living sober, knowledge really is power.

At The Last House sober living facility, we strive to dive deeper into the Serenity Prayer to uncover meaning that can help us make the most out of our recovery journeys. Learning the power of acceptance, change, and knowledge in recovery helps make us more confident and independent as we walk our recovery paths. Call 1-866-677-0090 to get started with The Last House today.

10 Signs the Party’s Over

by Recovery

Most of us like a good party. There’s just something in our DNA that seems to make us enjoy hanging out with good people, having good fun, and not doing any work. Here in Los Angeles in particular, partying can sometimes feel like it comes with the territory of being a young man in one of the nation’s busiest cities– and there’s no denying that a good party can often seem like a great way to meet new people, make new friends, and unwind.

For many of us, though, partying could also spell danger– especially when it involves drugs and alcohol. When we begin abusing alcohol and drugs all in the name of a good time, what seemed to us to be innocent fun could quite quickly descend into something much worse.

While it is true that addiction treatment centers and sober living homes like The Last House are well-equipped to help us beat addiction, being able to identify the warning signs that tell us our “good time” may be putting our lives in jeopardy can ensure we get the help we need as soon as possible.

There’s nothing like a good Los Angeles party– but we don’t need drugs or alcohol to help us enjoy ourselves.

How can young men realize the party’s over?

As young men, it can sometimes feel like the luxuries we get to enjoy are few and far between. Between providing for our families, taking care of our parents, and handling our responsibilities, partying can almost seem like a saving grace after a tough day, a long week, or just hours of sitting in Los Angeles traffic.  When we drink too much or use any drugs, however, we’re not saving ourselves from anything. In fact, we could be putting our lives at risk.

A telltale sign that the party’s over is when we continue our substance use even after clearly experiencing negative consequences as a result. The National Council on Drug and Alcohol Independence names personal health, relationships, and jobs as the first three areas in our lives that we may see suffer from sustained substance abuse. Perhaps we’ve partied hard every weekend for a month straight, and noticed that our spousal relationship has become more volatile, received warnings from our bosses regarding our performance, or even started experiencing physical signs of strain like frequent headaches or nausea. If these indicators aren’t enough to get us to stop using, we may need to consider addiction treatment options.

Another sign that we may need help is when we find ourselves passing up opportunities to engage in other activities that don’t involve drinking or using substances. Medical News Today coins this action “recreational sacrificing.” There’s a good chance that substance use has begun to take over when activities we would have enjoyed or attended without question in the past have now become activities that we excuse ourselves from more often than not. With the amount of activities we can enjoy on any given day here in Los Angeles, if partying with drugs and alcohol seems to be the only thing of any interest to us anymore, getting sober likely needs to be a priority.

Tolerance levels are also vital indicators that addiction isn’t far down the road. As we continue to use drugs or alcohol, our bodies get used to their presence and begin to demand more in order to achieve the same highs. Where three tequila shots may have gotten us drunk a few months ago, we may now need double to achieve the same effect. As young men, the negative repercussions of tolerance are two-fold. Not only do increased tolerance levels indicate a need for addiction treatment– they also spell danger for our liver and bodily functions. The more of a substance we consume, the more damage it does to our bodies.

What we choose to sacrifice in order to use can also be a warning sign of serious trouble. According to a study found in the scientific journal Psychopharmacology, as we become addicted to a substance, our brains actually become rewired to take incredibly large risks and make incredible sacrifices in order to maintain access or a supply to that substance. If we find ourselves gambling away cab money to get one more drink– knowing we have no other way to get back home through busy Los Angeles traffic– an addiction treatment plan may be right for us.

Other signs that substance use has become a problem include going from casual partying to feeling like we need a substance to survive or deal with our problems, making excuses when others attempt to confront us about getting sober, manipulating others to supply or support our addiction, simply being unable to limit how much we use, and attempting to keep our use secret or hidden from those who care about us.

When we realize the party is over, addiction treatment and sober living facilities like The Last House are here to help young men focus on getting sober. Again, while everyone loves a good Los Angeles party, there can be a thin line between being the life of the party and risking our lives with substances.


The Last House is a men’s sober living facility in West Los Angeles that specializes in turning our young men into scholars and gentlemen. Through modalities that build confidence, camaraderie, and self-reliance, we help our men realize just how rewarding getting sober can be. Addiction treatment for young men isn’t always easy, but the journey to sobriety is always worth the bumps in the road. We know what our clients need to become the confident gentlemen they can be, and we don’t stop until they get there. Call 1-866-677-0090 to get started with The Last House today.

When is an Addiction an Addiction?

by addiction

Misuse/abuse. Regular use. Tolerance. Dependence. Addiction.

The stages of addiction might manifest differently based on the place or person, but misuse or abuse of drugs is still one of the most likely ways to start down the slippery slope towards addiction. In fact, the misuse or abuse of substances is so prevalent that the FDA indicates that “in 2017, an estimated 18 million people (more than 6 percent of those aged 12 and older)… misused [prescription] medications at least once in the past year.” While misuse is not the same as abuse, both actions are often our first foray into using drugs in ways that they aren’t supposed to be used. In misusing drugs, we’re using drugs for a purpose other than what they’re intended for, although we may not be necessarily be looking to get high. In abusing drugs, we’re using drugs for one alternative purpose: getting high.  

For some of us, misusing drugs for purposes that seem as innocuous as relieving a headache or getting over a cold can lead our bodies to crave more and more of the feeling the drug provides. In a very short matter of time, what was our attempt to self-medicate can lead right to regular use, tolerance, dependence, and then addiction. As for abusing drugs, if we’re willingly consuming substances with the purpose of getting high, then there, too, is only a matter of time before addiction becomes a real threat.

How is addiction defined?

Because misuse and abuse of drugs are not the same, yet often used interchangeably, it follows that many of us might also be confused as to how the other stages of addiction are defined.

To start, regular use is best defined as the point in which we begin to display a pattern of use. If we misused a prescription drug once, say for a headache, and liked the feeling, we may do it again– though this time not so much for the pain as for the feeling we get from it. Later on, we may try it once more. Eventually, we’re no longer using the drug for pain, but simply out of habit.

We might not be addicted yet, but we’ve reached the first phase– where drug use has gone from misusing to now using consistently.

At the next phase is tolerance. When we’re becoming tolerant of a drug, we find that we need more and more of it to obtain the same high that we used to get from a much smaller amount of it. If we abused a prescription drug just for the thrill of it the first time, because we liked it a little the second time, and maybe because we wanted some more the third time, by the time we reach tolerance, we’ve built up a habit of using the drug and our system now needs more in order for us to feel it. As we increase the amount of the drug we use, some of us actually begin to feel like we can operate even with a large amount of it in our system. This is why this stage can also be called the “risky use” stage. We can, in effect, become so used to having large amounts of the drug in our system that we feel like there’s nothing in our system at all. Some of us get behind the wheel, attempt to go to work, and exhibit outwardly dangerous behavior due to the drug’s now habitual place in our system.

Following tolerance is dependence, which is when our bodies begin to enter periods of withdrawal if we don’t have access to the drug we’ve misused or abused. Withdrawal is a combination of physical and mental symptoms that can be relatively mild or life threatening. The severity of withdrawals often depends on the drug, the user, and how long the drug has been in the system. When we’re dependent on a drug, we haven’t quite reached the stage of complete addiction, but we are dangerously close to it.

Finally, addiction follows dependence. What makes addiction different than the other stages is that addiction is a mental disease. Addiction results from a person taking a drug repeatedly, but the telltale sign of addiction is when that person cannot stop taking it. A great definition of addiction is that it is a state “marked by a change in behavior caused by the biochemical changes in the brain after continued substance abuse.” Unlike dependence, where we exhibit physical distress when we try to stop using, tolerance, where we need more of a drug, or regular use, where we’ve first started a habit, addiction is the culmination of all of the above. Using the drug becomes our main priority, at the expense of anything and everything that may get in our way. When we reach the point of addiction, whether our drug use started as a result of abuse or misuse becomes secondary. At this point, professional help is highly recommended to help get us on the right track to recovery.

Defining when addiction starts can be difficult, but at The Last House sober living facility, we help our men conquer addiction once and for all. We believe that addiction is wholly treatable, and that the sober living community can help men identify the underlying issues behind why they misused or abused a drug in the first place. We focus on brotherhood, unity, and responsibility here– traits that, when combined, can help a man transform into a better version of himself than he ever thought possible. Call 1-866-677-0090 to get started with The Last House today.

Sober Living After Graduation

by Recoverytreatment
Sober Living After Graduation

Who said the sober living community’s way of doing things had to stop after we graduated?

It doesn’t!

The purpose of sober living is to prepare us for those “what’s next?” moments of our lives. We all have them. Maybe we return home to find that things have changed, and we need to pivot to get it all together. Maybe we find that living on our own, even after sober living, presents some challenges we didn’t expect to face.

One of the best ways to cope with unforeseen circumstances in our home life is to go with what we know: the sober living way. In sober living, we learn unity, self-reliance, and confidence through discipline, brotherhood, and collaboration with the men we live with. The lessons we learn along the way– things like punctuality, respect, and accountability– are all great ways to deal with almost everything life can throw at us afterwards, including what we may not think we’re prepared for.

The Big Book makes a very important point: “Until [we] could accept our alcoholism, we could not stay sober, [and] unless we can accept life completely on life’s terms, we cannot be happy.”

We accepted our struggle with addiction early on, and doing so allowed us to defeat it in treatment. Now, the only way to conquer life outside is to apply the same principles. We can’t expect that life will simply change for us, or that it won’t throw some things at us that may cause us to pause for a moment and think. We have to accept life on life’s terms, for all of the unsurety and lack of control it comes with. Once we do this, we can learn to navigate life with the skills we learned in treatment and sober living.

Sober living is like learning to swim, and life is like the sea. No matter the conditions, knowing how to swim allows us to conquer any body of water just alike. However, if we try to fight the sea, it’s easy to find ourselves struggling. The way to stay on top? Accept the sea for what it is. It’s powerful, it’s deep, and the current is strong. Then, let’s put on our goggles and not try to swim against it. Let’s swim with it.

The Last House is a men’s sober living facility in West Los Angeles. We help men backstroke through life’s oceans with ease, because we teach them how to swim in any environment. Life after treatment doesn’t have to just be lived. It can be conquered. Call 1-866-677-0090 to get started today!

Recovering with Grace

by addictionmental healthRecoverytreatment

addiction recovery

Many who have successfully recovered from addiction count the mental struggle as one the most taxing of the entire recovery process. Our mindset is of utmost importance when it comes to determining whether or not our journey will be a successful one. The most important question in determining an individual’s aptitude for a successful recovery becomes one of whether or not they are truly mentally and spiritually ready for the process. While there is no definitive way to answer this, there are steps that can be taken to bolster readiness and ensure as smooth of a journey as possible.

In learning to recover with grace, it is important that you fundamentally understand that your treatment was just one step in a long recovery process. A lot of individuals are not ever able to truly recover because they, for whatever reason, cannot accept the fact that a lot more work must be done after treatment to make sure they’re ready for the everyday world. If you don’t accept this, it’s easy to play the blame game post-treatment and forget that treatment can only go so far. While shifting the blame on treatment may help to temporarily assuage guilt or responsibility, it contributes to the wrong mindset. If an individual opts for recovery, he must understand exactly what it is he is getting himself into. At The Last House, our sober living facility programs provide that baseline knowledge, and significantly help with the process of adjusting from treatment to everyday life.

The second step in recovering with grace is acknowledging that recovery is not an overnight process. Many people acknowledge that they are still recovering from addiction decades after treatment. Though they may not have touched a substance in years, they understand that every day presents an opportunity to get a little stronger, and that recovery is a never-ending process. Likewise, those that are just beginning the recovery process must not anticipate total transformation in a day’s time. Preparing yourself for a gradual process ensures that your mind stays focused on goals and milestones of the journey.

The third step in recovering with grace is ensuring that you keep your mind, soul, and body aligned throughout the entire process. While this is significantly easier to do in the care of a treatment facility, it can become rather difficult outside of the facility, when in the comfort (or confines) of your own home. That’s where The Last House comes in. Our sober living facility bridges that gap between treatment and home, and provides the tools you need to stay aligned throughout your transition. Here, you’ll learn just how much remembering to eat healthy, staying active both physically and mentally, and setting attainable goals for your physical, spiritual, and mental well-being can positively impact your recovery. Recovery is very much mental, but it also requires that the rest of your faculties be at peak performance.

Recovering with grace starts with step one: making the transition from treatment to the rest of your life. The Last House is here to help you not just make that transition, but to make the most of it. Call us at (855)998-5278 to start your life changing path today!