Drug abuse is one of those problems that’s easy to forget about if it doesn’t affect you or a loved one. If you’ve never struggled with addiction, then you might hold the belief that another person’s abuse of illegal and legal drugs might not have any consequence on your life whatsoever. Unfortunately, that line of thinking is flawed. 

Drug abuse threatens entire communities because it has the potential to rip apart individual families. When a parent starts to use drugs, they are placing their need to feed their addiction above their need to be a good and loving parent. It doesn’t matter whether you or a loved one abuses drugs or not, you should care about drug abuse because it has the potential to make your neighborhood unsafe. People addicted to drugs are desperate, and desperate people are often mired in crime and violence. 

Luckily, our Chicago halfway houses are helping to treat people struggling with drug addiction. Professional rehab is mandatory for a recovering drug addict, but all too often we see addicts get out of rehab and return to drug use simply because they weren’t prepared for the challenges of sober living. Stairway To Freedom exists to help recovering drug addicts and alcoholics prepare for a sober future. We help folks succeed by taking the time to learn their story, encourage them and keep them accountable. Our mission is to stem the tide of drug and alcohol abuse by giving recovering addicts a safe place to live before they are ready to go back to their normal lives. For more information,  contact us today.

Living in the clutches of addiction means living with the nagging feeling that you will never have enough. That you will never be enough. Women’s Sober Living is the chance you need to discover yourself with two feet firmly planted in a safe and stable living environment. 

During your stay in a Stairway to Freedom recovery house, you will have a chance to develop new skills that will help you build a strong foundation for a successful and ongoing recovery. Here are three things you can look forward to on your journey to recovery:

1. Making new friends and strengthening existing healthy relationships. Maintaining a healthy, loving relationship with someone else feels impossible if you are unable to first maintain a healthy relationship with yourself. As you work through your 12 step program and begin to repair the relationships harmed by addiction, you will also develop the skills you need to navigate future relationships with a sense of self-worth and empathy. Our recovery homes provide peer-based support and accountability – one of the most valuable therapeutic tools available to the recovering addict. 

2. Appreciating a healthier and happier body. Substance abuse leaves you looking and feeling less than your best. Maybe you have gotten used to operating at half capacity, to feeling constantly tired, to fighting off illnesses. Once you have the support you need to begin living a sober lifestyle, you will be able to spend time doing things that make you look and feel better. Your body will need time to heal, but as it does you can look forward to increased energy and a healthier body. 

3. Acquiring new interests and talents. This is the part where you rewrite your story. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the idea of filling your time without substances, but without the fog of addiction you become acutely aware of the time you have to do the things that matter. Dreams and goals begin to emerge or resurface. What do you want to be able to do? What do you want to learn? What can you offer the world? Addiction imprisons some of the most beautiful parts of you. When you give yourself the opportunity to live in a structured and safe environment, you give yourself the chance to heal and grow in ways that may surprise you. 

Women’s Sober Living Homes – Chicago, IL

Please contact us if you are ready to get back the life you deserve and take the first step. 

If you are addicted to prescription medication, you might not feel as if you will ever be able to get your life under control.

The truth is that prescription drug addictions can be very difficult to kick. Many people start taking pills because they need them for medical reasons, and then things get out of control. The stigma isn’t the same as it is with many drug addictions, since prescription medications are legal. Plus, prescription medication can be easy to acquire through your doctor or on the street.

Prescription drug addictions are common all over the country and all throughout the state of Illinois, but this does not mean that you shouldn’t do something about it. Starting with an inpatient rehab option can help you get started.

Maintaining sobriety after you get out of rehab isn’t going to be easy, however. That’s why there is an important second step that you can follow — staying at one of the Chicago halfway houses that are available for people who are recovering from addictions, just like you.

These are a few reasons why a Chicago halfway house might be a good option to help you stay off of the prescription drugs in the long-term:

• Live in a controlled environment, away from other prescription drug users or other things that might tempt you away from your new sober lifestyle.
• Surround yourself with positive people who understand the importance of being sober. Your housemates will be others who are going through the same type of thing that you’re dealing with and who understand how committed you are to staying off of prescription drugs.
• Stay on-track with your commitment to sobriety, and use the resources that are available to you to help you stay that way.

Addiction Recovery – Chicago, IL

As you can see, staying at a Chicago halfway house can help you overcome your prescription drug addiction once you leave rehab. To find out more about your options, contact us at Stairway to Freedom today.

Your rehabilitation and recovery from drug or alcohol addiction will begin with physical withdrawal that can be physically and emotionally challenging.

For many recovering addicts, the real challenge begins after that withdrawal. Addictive substances such as opiates and methamphetamines change your brain chemistry to reduce or eliminate your ability to control your cravings for those substances, and you can suffer a relapse at any time after you go through withdrawal if you don’t remove yourself from the stresses and triggers that contributed to your addiction. Many men find that moving into a Men’s Sober Living community during the first 30 to 90 days after rehab will enhance their ability to overcome and defeat these cravings.

Addiction recovery counselors typically recommend a residential sober living community for addicts during this first critical period of their recoveries. An addict who returns to the environment that fostered his addiction places himself back in the path of temptation which, for many addicts, is impossible to resist. Friends and dealers who enabled the addiction will be ready and waiting in that environment to drag the addict back into their world. An addict’s difficulties in relationships with family members and friends might have triggered addictive behavior. In all cases, an in-patient residential living community will sever the addict from this environment and provide a sober community where new habits can be learned and developed.

A typical day in a residential recovery house can include individual and group therapy, vocational counseling, exercise and meditation sessions, and free time. If an addict senses a craving for the substances that led him into that recovery house, other residents will be immediately available to help him defeat those cravings. Men’s sober living communities have a unified sense of purpose, and every resident in that community has a stake in every other resident’s long-term recovery. Those residents often continue as a virtual support group long after they leave the residence.

Addiction recovery does not end with withdrawal, nor does it end with a temporary stay in a sober living residence. Rather, recovery if a lifelong process. Your decision to stay in a sober living residence during the first part of your recovery will put you on the best footing to begin that lifelong process and to continue it successfully throughout your life.    

Men’s Sober Living in Chicago, IL

If you are looking for a caring and supportive men’s sober living residence in Chicago or anywhere else in the United States, don’t hesitate to  contact us as soon as you can. Your recover from your substance abuse problems will begin with your asking for help, and we have the ideal resources and facilities that can provide that help.