Recovering for the Future

by addictionRecovery

Recovering for the Future

Page 119 of The Big Book offers a simple, comforting look ahead for the wives of men that were a part of the inaugural AA groups of the1930s. “Your family is reunited,” it says, “alcohol is no longer a problem and you and your husband are working together toward an undreamed-of future.”

Itn the 1930s, this would have seemed all but impossible to many of the wives that might have read this. Their husbands had no doubt struggled with alcohol for years, and the mere thought of their being able build a future together soon was probably a lot for them to take in.

It happened, though. As Alcoholics Anonymous began to flourish, so, too, did the lives of many of its attendees, including several of these husbands. Over time, AA and its practices have become a staple in many recovery communities, and the 12-step process, introduced so, so long ago, has only continued to grow in its use and effectiveness.

As a men’s sober living facility, we here at The Last House work to be able to make that same kind of promise to the families of the men we live, work, and learn with. We aren’t AA, and we aren’t a treatment facility. We’re the bridge that links men from these places back to the real world, and, as such, we have the important responsibility of giving our brothers the tools they need to be able to create those successful futures with their families, friends and loved ones.

We do this by combining the principles set forth by our forefathers in the AA community with a focus on unity, life skills, and peer support. Our process is strict, but fair, and the bonds we form with the men that walk through those doors are bonds that won’t easily be broken. As a unit and a family, we tackle problems, situations, and tough issues head-on, while learning to navigate through whatever life throws at us with poise and confidence.

How does unity help me recover for the future?

The Big Book couldn’t be any clearer about the importance of unity for our personal recovery: “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.”

Recovery is a wholly collaborative process. As The Big Book states very early on, we alone are powerless against addiction. After all, if we were able to fight it on our own, there would likely be no such thing as addiction in the first place. In a sober living community like ours, we stress the importance of being able to rely on those we trust to help us make it through tough times. It’s no secret that a burden is lighter when shared by many people. Unity to us means holding our brothers accountable for their actions, and taking full responsibility for our own. It also means reaching out for help from a friend instead of thinking that we have to do it all on our own. Remember, in the real world, there’s often little opportunity for “re-dos”. Learning to enjoy, appreciate, and utilize the power of unity is a skill that is absolutely necessary for the future, specifically when it comes to dealing with potential problems that we might not know how to face on our own.

Unity isn’t necessarily a difficult concept to understand, but it’s learning to reach out to others, to use the resources provided for us, and to put the good of the group before ourselves that really makes all the difference. As men we can be proud, and while it’s admirable to be confident in ourselves, we sometimes confuse haughty pride for true confidence and end up dealing with the consequences the hard way. At The Last House, we teach that unity doesn’t mean that you’re showing weakness, but that you know how to work with your brothers to become even stronger individually. It’s in working together that we learn how to build that true confidence in ourselves and those that we support.

Life skills for the future

If there’s one thing sober living communities teach us, it’s how to prepare for life. As a segway between the treatment center and the real world, the sober living process strives to provide us with the tools we’ll need to become viable, contributing members of society, to take care of our responsibilities, and, as The Big Book asks of us, to be champions of the treatment process for others that need help. Here at The Last House, we teach men life skills for the future by encouraging them to be self-reliant and proactive in everything that they do. Whether it’s attending a court session or cooking dinner for their brothers, our men are required to be prompt, respectful, and dutiful in fulfilling the responsibilities they’re assigned. If they aren’t, consequences picked by the group hold them accountable and encourage them to get it right the next time.

Sober living is equal parts recovery community and real world experience. As such, our men get the chance to apply the skills they learn in our community to their day jobs, outings, and recreation outside of our facility on a daily basis. In doing so, they learn to build their self-reliance, confidence, and poise. By the time they’ve graduated from our sober living community, they aren’t just fitting into mainstream society– they’re excelling! We believe in the power of practicing the right habits, and The Big Book backs us up: “Our basic troubles are the same as everyone else’s, but when an honest effort is made “to practice these principles in all our affairs,” [we] seem to have the ability, by God’s grace, to take these troubles in stride and turn them into demonstrations of faith.” Practice really does make perfect, and the more we practice, the easier it is to transition into the real world with a bang!

The Last House is Los Angeles’ premier sober living facility for men transitioning out of treatment and into the real world. If you want more out of your life after treatment, call us at 1-866-677-0090 today!

Perception is the Battle

by addictionRecovery

Perception is the Battle

What if the only barrier between you and an amazing life after treatment was your perception? What if the only reason you weren’t sure if you were ready for life after treatment was because you kept telling yourself you weren’t?

These are questions that many of us don’t quite know how to answer. The truth is, we don’t often like to admit that the only person in the way of our own happiness and success might very well be ourselves. It unsettles us to know that we may be preventing something incredible from happening simply because we’re afraid to give it a chance to happen.

For many men after treatment, however, this is the exact situation we face. We enter treatment with one mission: to get better. Once we do get better, though, our perception sometimes shifts from our treatment to our future. If we’re not careful, we may even become tempted to shrug off the things we learned in treatment and focus on the unsurety of not knowing what’s out there waiting for us.

Perception is powerful, and it plays a very decisive role in our lives. In sober living, we learn to harness the power of perception to change our fear into hope, and our insecurity into confidence. Just because the future is out of our control doesn’t mean we need to be afraid of it!

How does sober living change my perception?

As The Big Book indicates, it isn’t until we realize that we are helpless against addiction on our own and take the steps to get help that recovery can truly start. Likewise, it isn’t until we change the way we view life after treatment that we can really take the steps to make the most of it.

Think about it– if you’ve just graduated from an intensive treatment program, the last time you really had a go at the outside world was well before you ever stepped foot through the doors of that treatment facility. That could have been anywhere from three to six months ago. Perhaps even longer. Even if you went the outpatient route, your days were so structured and inundated with therapy, activities, and programming that you likely had little chance to involve yourself in too much else. While that intense schedule is perfect for treatment, you need a bridge between that kind of living and the rest of your life, which, more than likely, won’t be quite as treatment-heavy. Without that bridge, you may not be nearly as prepared as you should be to re-enter a world that can be anything but forgiving.

Enter sober living. The sober living environment allows you to gradually make the adjustment back to the real world, and in doing so, adjusts your perception of what awaits you after graduation. Think of it a bit like swimming. Jumping headfirst from the diving board into the deep end isn’t really the best method for learning how to swim, even if you have the skills to do it. Instead, one might suggest starting shallow and building your confidence before having a go at the deep end. We know which method we would try!

At The Last House, one of the things that makes our sober living community so successful is the fact that we champion independence. In our minds, there’s no better way to build up your confidence in yourself and your ability to excel after treatment than by giving you the room to do it. Community rules and guidelines are built by and for the brothers, and each man is responsible for keeping himself in line, and holding the man beside him accountable for his actions as well.

With increased confidence in our own independence and self-reliance, our perception of next steps, again, shifts considerably. We aren’t nearly as afraid to confront what awaits us in the real world because we’ve built the skill set we need to conquer it in sober living. Since sober living communities encourage our involvement in the outside world by mandating that we look for work, attend court dates, and engage in community outings, our return to the real world isn’t intimidating at all. In fact, we look forward to it. As The Big Book states, “from a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment.”

The last way that sober living changes our perception about life after treatment is perhaps the very best. In our sober living communities, we are encouraged to utilize our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses. Simply put, we rely on our brothers to help us identify areas of our lives that need some work, and collaborate to fix them. If we’re selfish, peer support can help us fix it. If we’re passive, group outings can boost our confidence. No matter what we may struggle with, there’s a sober living activity designed to fix it, and because of this, we graduate from sober living considerably more self-aware than we ever were before. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses and how to use them and deal with them gives us more confidence for facing the future!

The Last House is a premier men’s sober living facility in West Los Angeles that specializes in making gentlemen out of the men that come to us post-treatment. Call us at 1-866-677-0090 to see how we can help you gain the confidence to blow life out of the water after treatment!