You often hear of popular Hollywood celebrities who have checked themselves into rehab.  But you never really hear about what happens to them afterwards. For regular people, a recovery house, also known as a sober house, is simply a transitional haven between a rehabilitation center and their actual home. People who are trying to rid themselves of their drug or alcohol addiction usually seek treatment in rehabilitation centers. After rehab, recovering addicts and alcoholics should go to a recovery house to help them get back to their old healthy selves. Recovery homes, after all, are designed to help them sustain sobriety.

A recovery house can be something as simple as a normal apartment where you can stay however long you want or it can be as lavish and opulent as a luxury resort with your own suite and numerous facilities at your beck and call. Their similarities lie in the fact that when you “check in” at any of these recovery houses, you need to participate in a 12-step program, attend support group meetings and basically brush up on your social skills with people in the same house as you. Health and fitness are always part of the regimen to get the toxins out of your system for good so you will also be invited to participate in sports activities to get you back in shape and to keep you from being bored.

Some recovery houses require that you stay for a full 90-day program, which they believe is ample time to ease you back into your regular groove from the harsh and rigorous activities you had from the rehabilitation center. Since recovery houses are simply transitional stations and you are treated as guests who are free to come and go, all that is expected of you is your desire to remain sober, for your own good and for the good of your family. All the support that you need to get you back on track is within your grasp, should you wish to take it.

Taking back your life and controlling it is a difficult thing to do. A recovery house with all its tools is one of the paths that you may take on your journey to getting better. It is up to you to combine all the things that they have taught you, whether it is through the support group or the psychotherapy or the spiritual healing, but it becomes easier because you have friends and family who understand what you are going through and are willing and able to support you through this trying time in your life.