by A Women in Sobriety | Mar 19, 2014 | Addiction Articles, Sobriety For Women
Delray Beach is The Recovery Capital of The World!
Delray Beach, Florida, is known as the recovery capital of the United States. It’s also knows as the recovery capital of the world! It’s located in Palm Beach County, in beautiful south Florida. Delray is an hour north of Miami and only twenty minutes from Ft. Lauderdale. It lies between Boca Raton and Boynton Beach.
I have a saying I like to repeat to women new in Delray Beach. It goes a little something like this – my grandparents worked their entire lives to retire to Delray Beach. All I had to do was lie, cheat, steal, and drink!
Why is Delray The Recovery Capital?
Delray Beach has the country’s largest amount of sober communities, treatment centers, halfway houses, and other sober living facilities. There are over 200 weekly twelve-step meetings to choose from, many of which are women’s meetings.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Delray has a number of recovery business. These range from twelve-step intergroup offices to meditation centers to yoga studies to spiritual shops.
Why Is it a Good Idea For Me To Live in Delray?
Recovery for women can be hard, especially when surrounded by the people, places, and things we associate with active addiction. Getting away from these places can be a tremendous help in the recovery process. Being around other recovering women, who share your struggles and triumphs, is a great form of sober support. Being part of an active community of sober women can make you feel accepted and comfortable through the difficult time known as early-sobriety. It also helps with preventing relapse.
Delray is diverse and boasts a demographic of all ages. Young people (eighteen to twenty five years old) are quickly becoming the largest group admitted to treatment centers. Delray beach has a ton of young people in sobriety! It’s easy to make new friends, supports, and meaningful, lifelong connections. Some of us refer to these people as our second family! Delray is also know for it’s old-timers. These are people who have long-term recovery and (guess what!) they don’t have to be old! They have an incredible amount of experience, strength, and hope, which they’ve gained over their time in the rooms of recovery.
While some people stay in Florida to fulfill their treatment and return home, approximately 65,000 people make it their home after treatment.
Testimonial articles about Delray Beach, FL, have been found in the NY Times and the Herald Tribune.
Can I Have Fun in Sobriety?
Delray Beach is known for being a popular vacation spot. Many love the beautiful scenery at night, which, for many women, is great place to meditate.
Delray boasts over thirty parks and recreation facilities for residents and visitors. These include pools, water parks, athletic fields, skate parks, and one and half miles of public beach. Guess what else? The beach is open and beautiful three hundred and sixty-five days a year!
Downtown Delray is known for its dining, shopping, arts, culture, and nightlife. It’s filled with great restaurants, retail stores, spas, salons, art galleries, and unlimited fun. Downtown Delray’s known for its arts and crafts festivals and Christmas Tree lighting festival. Delray is also right next to the PGA Tour headquarters, markets, and countless concert venues.
Delray Beach is a fantastic place to start your recovery journey. No wonder is has been dubbed the Recovery Capital of the World! No wonder it’s become a home for so many women in sobriety!
by Sally Rosa | Dec 18, 2013 | Addiction Articles, Recovery
What Exactly is a Halfway House?
Simply put, a halfway house is a sober-living environment for addicts and alcoholics in early recovery. Halfway houses help people make the transition from active addiction to responsible member of society.
This transition, from active addiction to the real world, is hard! Looking for a way to support and help ourselves through early sobriety is also pretty tough. Halfway houses help tremendously during early recovery. You can find halfway houses all across the country, but in Delray Beach, FL, they’re a dime a dozen. So, how can you tell the good ones from the bad ones?
How Can Halfway Houses Help?
Halfway houses offer a level of structure and accountability that addicts in early recovery often lack. They offer a safe environment and promote healthy behavior, including:
– Helping to find and maintain employment
– Helping with financial issues (think applying for food stamps, etc.)
– Giving a certain amount of responsibilities (think chores, etc.)
– Providing random drug tests
– Holding regular house meetings (this helps with issues within the house, as well as with personal sobriety)
– Requiring regular meeting attendance (think ninety meetings in ninety days)
– Ensure that you have a sponsor and working the twelve-steps
What Makes a Good Halfway House?
The biggest indicator of a quality halfway house is that it be gender specific. Women with women and men with men! However, there are some larger halfway houses that do offer male and female housing, though they’re usually separated.
A good halfway house has a zero tolerance drug use policy. This means that if a resident relapses, they’re asked to leave, or escorted, off the property immediately.
Structure and consequences also play a key role. To help maintain structure, consequences should be set to reflect it. Consequences are administered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the severity of the situation.
Quality halfway houses have daily curfews. These curfews differ for residents and depend on factors like how long they’ve lived there, and whether it’s a weeknight or the weekend.
The house should be for clients only. This means that while family, sponsors, and sober supports can visit, they need authorization to do so. This maintains privacy, personal safety, and personal valuable safety.
How Much Does a Good Halfway House Cost?
Halfway houses collect rent on a weekly basis. This is beneficial for multiple reasons. First, it helps keep the cost manageable for residents. Second, if a resident relapses and leaves, they won’t lose a ton of money. Rent is generally between $75 and $200 per week.
There’s typically an entrance fee to be admitted to a halfway house, though this isn’t always the case. Entrance fees include first and last week’s rent and a security deposit.
Many, if not all, halfway houses are happy to meet residents at their unique finical level. This may include payment plans, discounts, or even scholarship programs.
by Sally Rosa | Jan 25, 2013 | Addiction Treatment, Recovery
Treatment is just the beginning. I used to hate when people told me that! It didn’t matter if they were therapists, family, or friends. I didn’t want to hear it! Turns out they were telling me the truth though.
Moving into a sober-living house (a halfway or three-quarter house) after treatment is incredibly helpful. Early sobriety is tough. Being in a structured, safe, and sober environment makes the transition from treatment to real-life easier. Simple as that.
Most newly sober women don’t know what to expect from a halfway house. They think it’s going to be dark, dank, and depressing. Or they think it’ll be a place to use without anyone knowing. Or they think something else crazy. I thought all those things and more!
The truth is that living in a halfway house provides strong community support. It’s yet another safety net against relapse.
The Top 10 Things You Should Do in a Halfway House
1) Follow the rules
2) Go to meetings
3) Get a sponsor
4) Make friends with other sober women
5) Get a job and begin to become self-sufficient
6) Get honest – ask for help if you think about using
7) Start praying and building your relationship with God
8) Be grateful for this opportunity at a second chance
9) Be respectful of your roommates – that means clean up after yourself!
10) Become a productive members of society – get in a routine and stick with it
The Top 10 Things You Shouldn’t Do in a Halfway House
1) Don’t use drugs or drink!
2) Don’t continue to act out (on an eating disorder, sexually, excessive shopping, etc.)
3) Don’t sleep all day
4) Don’t relay on everyone else to support you
5) Don’t only hang out with newly sober people – get some old-timers in your life!
6) Don’t be disrespectful to your roommates or house managers
7) Don’t get violent in the house
8) Don’t fall too far behind on rent
9) Don’t continue to do the same things and expect different results!
10) Don’t think you can do this on your own – if everyone else needs help, so do you!
Follow these lists to guarantee your success while living in a halfway house!
