Wendy Williams, 54, opened up during a live taping of her talk show on March 19 and revealed she’s been living in a sober home for addiction. Wendy didn’t give a lot of details on what addiction she’s struggling with, but she did get very candid about her new life. After her daily routine in the city, Wendy said she is “driven by my 24-hour sober coach back to a home that I live in here in the tristate with a bunch of smelly boys who’ve become my family.” In her tearful 15-minute monologue, Wendy also talked about her previous struggle with cocaine and admitted she managed to kick her habit back then without professional help. But, this time she is getting help and as a result, she is now living in a sober living home. In some ways a sober living home can be similar to rehab, but as addiction specialist Doug Caine explains EXCLUSIVELY to HollywoodLife, there are also a lot of differences between the two.
“A residential rehab provides 24 hour housing, they often provide medical detox, they provide all your meals. And typically, there is therapeutic programming throughout the day, so identification of emotions, family issues, groups, introductions to 12-step, that kind of thing. Sober living homes are completely unregulated in most states so they could be something as simple as a flophouse with no supervision where people come and go as they please for a reduced rent. Or they can be something as complex as a highly structured facility with supervisory staff, regular drug testing, and transportation provided to your own therapist, medical doctors, 12 step meetings, church, mosque, whatever it is that you need to stay of dope while you’re there.”
Another big difference between sober living homes and rehab centers, explains Doug Caine, is that visitors, and time out and about in the real world, are extremely limited at a rehab. But in a sober living home, the patients are encouraged to interact with the outside world. “In a rehab or residential addiction treatment facilities it is extremely rare that visitors are allowed at all, except on specified times for four hours on a Saturday or Sunday. It’s also extremely rare that a resident in a rehab would be allowed to leave the rehab for any reason without rehab staff accompanying her. In a sober living home, because you are using that as a place to transition back into a drug-free life the residents of a sober living are allowed vistas and they are also encouraged to leave the facility. Signing out with a stated destination and stated return time. In a case with somebody prone to relapse it’s a really strong idea to have a sober companion with you when you need.”
Wendy revealed in her tearful confession that she’s in a sober living home in the “Tri-state area” and according to our expert, there are a few higher-quality options — but they are very pricey. “There are a couple of very nice sober living houses in the Tri-State area and if Wendy Williams is in a decent quality place, which she almost surely is, typically they go for 30 days cycles, and it really varies on the cost but if you’re talking about a really high-end, properly secured, properly staffed you could be spending 1000 a day easily or around 30K a month,” he explains.
And that isn’t the end of Wendy’s sober living bill because she also revealed on her show that she has a “sober living companion”, which our expert says is likely costing her at least $1,500 a day. “A sober companion can do everything from the very basic, I’ll drive you from A to B and slap your hand if you reach for a bottle,” explains Doug Caine. “A sober companion also can deliver the other end of the spectrum, a wide array of services depending on his or her training from rapport building, showing how a client can build rapport with healthy people, and people in the indigenous recovery community. Some of us are clinical psychologists, I am, so I deliver regular psychotherapeutic interventions, I deliver family sessions, the whole package.”
“Between the cost of her sober living home and this sober companion, she could easily be spending $2,500 per day, or around $75K per month. But if she can afford the sober living and the sober companion, she probably should be doing it because it is allowing her to avoid sitting in a sterile environment of a rehab and any rehab, where a person of means with a recognizable face can go and have some success will cost at least 50k a month.” It sounds like Wendy is dropping a lot of money on this, but her health is definitely worth it. After all, last December, she was slurring her words on TV and blaming “painkillers” for it. We applaud Wendy for reaching out for help.