Intervention Basics
Drug and Alcohol Intervention for Young Adults
Entering adulthood can be an exciting time. It can also be a time of great stress and temptation to engage in drug and alcohol experimentation which can lead to dependence and addiction. It’s tough to see a young adult go through the misery associated with substance abuse problems, and maybe the time could be right to consider drug and alcohol intervention for young adults. Full Story
When Is the Best Time to Do an Intervention?
The question about timing for an intervention is a common one. Should you wait until the addict has been arrested for a DUI or is sick in the hospital from an overdose? Should you wait until the addict finishes college/loses their job/finalizes their divorce/gets that raise…etc etc…
New Training Program Teaches Intervention Skills to the Public
A mental health emergency can happen to anyone you know or don’t know, and anywhere during your regular daily routine—but are you prepared to handle it? Just like training for life-threatening emergencies involving physical crises, such as CPR classes offered by the fire department, professionals are now offering training courses to the public on how to properly intervene during life-threatening mental health crises.
When Intervention May Be the Best Approach
You’ve tried everything to get your loved one to stop using drugs or alcohol and nothing has worked so far. Screaming, hysteria, threats, punishment, or withholding affection – whatever tactic you may have used just seemed to make things worse. Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe now is the time when intervention may be the best approach.
Intervention is Not a Dirty Word
Despite the negative connotation many people associate with the word, intervention is a proactive and positive step that family members, friends, and others can take to help someone whose substance abuse or other addictive behavior has totally destroyed – or is in the process of destroying – their life. So, before going any further, start by thinking about intervention as one of the best approaches you can possibly take to assist your loved one or friend to get help to overcome his or her addiction.
What Intervention Really Is
Part of the reason that people are skeptical or fear intervention is that they don’t know what it is or how it works. In essence, intervention is a process to help convince the addict that now is the time to accept and go to treatment. Intervention can be considered the first step in the drug, alcohol, or other addictive behavior rehabilitation process. That’s it in a nutshell.
Can anyone perform an intervention? While concerned family members and friends may think they can do the intervention on their own, the personal connection, emotions, and circumstances may make it impossible to carry out. Unable to separate themselves from the pain and resistance of the addict, they may cave in and allow the addict to go one with his or her life as it is. This only sets back the prospect of getting treatment. It also solidifies the manipulative power the addict holds over the family and friends. And addicts are extremely adept at manipulation. It isn’t that they want to hurt those who love them, but they are incapable of rational thinking due to the fact that they are bound to their addiction.
For this reason, intervention is best conducted by a qualified, trained professional called an interventionist. This individual is highly skilled in overcoming the barriers addicts have to getting treatment. They can often get through to the addict when no one else can, helping them to realize exactly where they stand in terms of their addiction, and showing them there is a path out of addiction – if they’re willing to accept that they are addicted and go to treatment.
Why is an interventionist so critical in conducting an effective intervention? Think of it as experience versus simply wanting things to get better. In addition, being an outsider, the interventionist is not emotionally caught up in the drama that surrounds the addict’s life. The interventionist has years of experience in being able to judge addicts’ psychological and physical conditions. They know how to deal with resistance and denial and objections – and the physical cravings and urges that are pulling at the addict – and help the addict get to the point where he or she is willing to consider going to treatment.
Intervention Goals
While the primary goal of an intervention is to get the addict to accept and go into treatment, there are other goals of effective intervention. These include:
• Creating a plan where the family can become empowered through education on all aspects of addiction and enabling.
Modern Approaches to Addiction Intervention and Rehabilitation
Modern behaviors towards addiction and rehabilitation have considerably changed during the last decade thanks to the multitude of images depicting substance abuse and behavioral disorders that are infiltrating this technological generation. The Internet, celebrity blogging, social networking, podcasts, video streaming, reality television programming, and ever-revolving tabloids have all become commonplace within the traditional American household.
Forced into an Intervention – What Are Your Choices Now?
It all begins as a day just like any other. You get up, still a little hung over from the night before, but haven’t yet opened a beer, smoked a joint, popped a pill or shot up. Or, you come home from work all ready to get high in the quiet of your own place. Next thing you know, your family, a few friends, maybe even your boss are sitting in your living room along with some guy or gal you’ve never seen before. What the heck is everybody doing here, you wonder aloud? Somebody die?
The strange person welcomes you, invites you to sit down. You’re not liking this whole scenario one bit, but you sit anyway. There’s a kind of eerie calm in the room, except for your own jitters and uneasiness. Your mom, dad, brothers and sisters, your fishing buddy, the guy you work next to and your boss (god, your boss!) all have pads of paper or a folded letter in their laps. Some smile, a little anxiously, it seems to you. Your mom looks like she’s been crying. Your dad just looks stoic, like he’s having a tooth pulled. Whatever this is, it must be something really bad.
You want to get out of the room already, and all you’ve heard so far is the welcome by the stranger. What you really want, though, is a drink, a smoke, to do a line – to escape. You’re half out of your chair when the stranger introduces himself or herself and says they’re an interventionist. The purpose of this meeting is to encourage you to get help with your addiction. Everyone here wants to support you through the decision to go into treatment…
Oh, no, you’re not buying this. No way. You stand up, balling your fists. You’re in firm denial mode. “I don’t have a problem. I
can quit anytime. I don’t need any help. I want you all to leave.”
But the stranger continues in an even, reassuring tone, saying that these are the people who love you and care about you. All they want is the best for you. They have something they’d like to say to you. Will you at least listen? Give them a chance to express what’s on their minds? That couldn’t hurt, could it?
No, you admit. You’ll listen, but you’re not going into treatment, period.
One by one, they start to read what’s written on their pieces of paper. Some of it’s pretty tough to hear and it tears your guts out. But you listen. Some of those gathered can’t contain themselves and break down sobbing, your mom among them. You can’t stand seeing her cry, but you hold yourself back from saying or doing anything. In fact, you feel as if you’re frozen. Maybe if they just get it over with, you can breathe. Once they’re done, they can all leave and you’ll be fine. You can almost taste the drink. You need the drink. It’s only a matter of time, now, since the last one is picking up their letter. But it’s your boss. He looks at you before he starts to read, and you feel a sinking in the pit of your gut that this time there might just be some serious consequences for your actions.
When he finishes, there’s dead silence in the room. Except for the throbbing in your own head that sounds like a drum beating. Now, what? The interventionist starts talking again, asking you if you heard what these people had to say. You nod, not saying anything. Then the statement comes: “We’re here to offer you a chance to start over. Beginning today, you can start your new life. Are you willing to take it?”
Now you do get up. You scream, maybe a few obscenities, maybe not, on account of your mom. You stride out of the room and go into the kitchen, looking for your bottle. Your dad comes after you. “Now, son, please come back into the living room. We’re not here to fight you. We love you. Will you please come back in?” After a few minutes, during which he won’t allow you to grab the bottle, you decide you’ll rejoin the group. “But I’m not going to any rehab!”
Back with the others, there’s more talk from the family members and friends, yada, yada, yada. Same as before. Why don’t they stop already? What seems like an eternity has only been about 45 minutes. Clearly nobody has any intention of leaving. You argue and promise you’ll quit on your own, that you don’t need to go someplace to have a bunch of strangers in your business.
“That hasn’t worked before, has it?” the interventionist asks. “How many times have you told yourself that?”
Got a point there. Still, you argue how you can’t afford to take the time off work. Oops, shouldn’t have said that. You remember how your boss said your work performance had suffered and how he wouldn’t tolerate it anymore unless you got help. Can’t afford it, you mumble. The interventionist chimes in that everything’s been taken care of. You don’t even hear half of what’s said next, something about insurance, sliding pay scale, scholarship or financial aid. The point is that it’s covered, more or less.
You run out of arguments. You’re suddenly very tired, wanting all this to go away like a bad dream. This isn’t anything you asked for, nothing you’d ever do on your own. Finally, with a voice that seems like it creeps up out of your shoes, you say you’ll do it.
You mom and dad clasp each other’s hand and then everybody jumps up and races toward you, shaking your hand, giving you a hug. All this fuss!
You didn’t want the intervention, but you got it anyway. In no time flat, you’re in a car being whisked away to a treatment center.
Everybody stands at the curb to wave good-bye. Now, it’s just you and the interventionist alone in the car with the driver. You may go over a few of the things that are going to happen next with the interventionist, but mostly you just sit alone with your thoughts. Most of those thoughts involve how and when you can get your next drink, smoke or fix.
What are your choices now that the intervention is over?
What You Do Next Decides Your Future
The above scenario may or may not fit your particular situation – or that of a loved one you’re planning to do an intervention for –
but it is fairly typical. A person doesn’t have to want to go into treatment for it to be effective – although that’s the optimal mindset going into rehab. Sometimes it takes the combined encouragement and support of people who love and care about you to get you to do what you’d never do on your own. It just happened to be through an intervention. It doesn’t matter, therefore, if you agree with their motives or like what’s about to happen. It does matter what you do next. Here are several outcomes:
• Accept the help – Recognize that you do need help and take advantage of it. Go into detox and get clean, then move on to the treatment phase. You will learn the underlying reasons why you first started drinking and/or using drugs, typical stresses and triggers that precipitate drinking and using, coping skills and techniques to help you steer clear of the triggers that cause you to drink and/or do drugs. Through behavior modification and other innovative treatment protocols, you will be able to restructure your behavior to enable you to live free of alcohol and drugs. You do need to stick with the program all the way through, though, to give yourself a fighting chance at a successful recovery.
• Just try it for a while – You might tell yourself that you’ll go along with the deal for a little bit, but you’re not totally invested in sticking around for however long they think you’ll be there. In fact, you’re already making plans to get out of the center as soon as it looks like you can leave.
• Detox only – You’ve wanted to kick the booze, pills and drugs for a while. This is a good way to do a whole body cleanse. After all, everything’s being taken care of for you. No fuss, no muss is the way you look at it. Once you’re clean, you’re out of there. Forget treatment, don’t need it. You can take care of yourself. You’ve done okay all this time, haven’t you?
Of the three outcomes, which one do you think will be the most successful at allowing you to remain clean and sober? Did you know that 80 percent of those who only complete detox but fail to go on to treatment suffer a relapse? And, if you don’t even give detox a chance, what do you think the odds are for abstinence. You guessed it: practically zero.
When your loved ones invest the time and effort, obviously painful for all, to stage an intervention, it’s because they sincerely want you to make a clean sweep, to get your life back on track, to experience real love and happiness – maybe for the first time in many months or years or ever. Give yourself the gift of hope. Accept the treatment. Stick with it. Envision a future that has no limits to what you can achieve. It’s all out there waiting for you. Go for it.
Interventions: What You Need to Know
When a loved one seems to have lost control of their life or has become a danger to himself or others due to substance abuse or other harmful behaviors, family and friends often try to intervene.
Singer Janet Jackson reportedly tried to stage an intervention for her brother Michael in 2007, two sources close to the Jackson family told CNN. Britney Spears’ family intervened in 2008 through the court after a judge in her custody case cited her for “habitual, frequent, and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol.” Her father, Jamie Spears, was granted temporary conservatorship over her.
An article in CNN suggests several ways to intervene, noting that interventions can take many forms. Experts say that simply suggesting that a drug addict make an appointment for professional help may work.
Patrick Hart, an intervention specialist in Seattle, Washington, said that speaking openly in a compassionate tone and without judgment is an effective way to approach an intervention. He said that the addiction or other problem should be viewed as an illness that deserves professional care.
“Do not expect an addicted loved one to simply stop within their own right,” Hart said. “Offer specified help.”
Another form of intervention is a more formal, direct approach involving family members and close friends. It’s best to hire a professional interventionist for these meetings. Before the meeting, the interventionist meets with family members and friends to get a history of what has happened.
Loved ones will often explain in writing that they are involved in the intervention because they love the addict, and then detail the ways the addict’s behavior has hurt them or concerned them. For example, if the person is married, his or her spouse may not permit him or her back into the home. If the person is living with family, the relatives may warn that he or she won’t be welcome back.
Before the intervention, the interventionist will help the family create specific consequences if the addict does not agree to go into treatment, and the interventionist will talk with the family about the possibility of the addict running away.
Dr. Bankole Johnson, chairman of psychiatric medicine at the University of Virginia, said it’s best to treat the addiction as a medical problem and stress the physical consequences of it. According to him, simply telling a person that he or she has a problem with alcohol or drugs is often not as effective as saying, “You seem to be having difficulties with your sleeping, or you seem to be having difficulties with your breathing.”
In most states, treatment for addiction cannot be forced by family members of friends—that’s where the legal system comes in. However, it is very difficult to prove in court that a person is not able to manage his or her life because of an addiction.
Different states have different laws, but a conservatorship—when someone takes legal charge of another person’s decisions—is only granted if a person is a threat to other people or to themselves, Johnson said. Generally, he said, the person has to commit a crime such as driving while intoxicated before the legal system gets involved in ordering treatment.
But sometimes the very threat of police intervention is enough to prompt an addict to treatment, said Dr. Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer at Hazelden Foundation.
Experts stressed that family members and friends should not wait until the person they’re concerned about “hits rock bottom” before attempting to get help from a professional.
“Very rarely does someone wake up in the morning and say, ‘I want to change,’” said Mike Loverde, who was addicted to prescription painkillers eight years ago and now is the director of program services at the Intervention Services Inc. branch outside Chicago.
Tips for a Successful Intervention
If you are planning an intervention for a spouse, partner, friend, or family member, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some tips that will help you plan the conversation that could save the life of your loved one.
What Happens in an Intervention?
For many families, an intervention is a last resort. If you have a loved one that is an alcoholic or drug addict and either can’t – or won’t – seek help on their own, an intervention is probably the only hope you have. The fact that you’re even considering an intervention shows just how desperate your situation has become.
The good news is: an intervention will help bring about change. How much change occurs will depend on a number of factors. Full Story
Inside the Intervention Process
By Alison Lyke
It can be hard to approach an addict about their problem. They can get defensive, refuse to talk about it, or even completely deny their addiction. Behavioral scientists have created the intervention process as way for loved ones to bind together to confront an addict. In some extreme cases, an intervention is more for the family than for the addict. The family needs to feel that they have done everything that they can for the addict. Full Story
Need Help Finding an Intervention Specialist?
We can refer you to an experienced interventionist who can help you help your loved one.
The Addiction Primer: Everything You Need to Know to Get Help for a Loved One
A very inexpensive yet indispensable guide for anyone struggling with a loved one's addiction. Chapters on intervention, what to expect from rehab, and information on how addiction impacts the family.
