At Lakehouse Recovery Center, we offer private and semi-private rooms, as do most residential treatment program. In order to accommodate and serve the needs of more people, roommates are common in residential treatment. You learn how to respect another person’s space, practice patience, bond with other people, and ask for support. On good days, you’ll be grateful for having your roommate to speak to in confidence and reflect on the day. On days when either one of you are struggling, you will be able to learn how to give someone space, offer help without expecting the offer to be taken, and more.
Sharing a room during treatment includes some obvious rules and maybe some less obvious rules. When you’re sharing private spaces with someone during residential treatment, you aren’t going to class and missing each other all day. You’ll be in the same groups, out on the same activities, and having meals at the same time. Treatment isn’t like a day camp. Everything includes emotional processing where people are confronting their “demons”, some of their most innermost issues which are contributing to their drug and alcohol addiction. Everyone is in a vulnerable state, fragile when it comes to triggers and uncomfortable situations. It is important that your living situation be as comfortable as possible, for both parties involved, so that everyone can recover. Here are some of our tips on sharing a room during treatment.
- Maintain respect for one another’s experience: Some are sicker than others, we say in recovery. It’s easy to want to compare apples and oranges, but they’re both fruit. Meaning, no matter the personal circumstances and differences between you and your roommate, it is important to have respect for those differences. Both of you are in residential treatment, after all.
- Accept that maybe this is happening for a reason: Everything happens for a reason we may or may not be able to see. Instead of wondering if you are being punished for having a roommate, be curious about why the two of you are together and what you might be able to learn.
- Give them enough space for their stuff: Some people bring a lot of stuff to treatment. Realize that they might need that stuff to make them feel more comfortable. Help them arrange things in a way that works for both of you, while understanding that’s what they need to be comfortable.
- Agree on quiet hour practices: Maybe you’re falling asleep at 8:30 and you’re roommate is up until 12:30AM. Agree on how you will approach quiet hours when someone is sleeping. You’ll be grateful to create the agreed upon rules ahead of time.
- Get to know each other: You can offer each other feedback and insight on different groups you’ve had that day, how other people in the program are doing, and your personal progress.
- Help each other out by keeping each other accountable: You don’t want to be a tattle tale, but if you catch your roommate with a razor, drugs and alcohol, or anything else they aren’t supposed to have, you should bring it up as soon as possible to a nurse or staff member. You’re helping them stop their habits and you’re also protecting yourself.
For information on our residential detox and treatment programs in addition to our 12 month aftercare, call us today: 877.762.3707