Alcohol Intervention

What addiction intervention can mean to your family

When your loved one is addicted to a substance, it can be very scary and frustrating. You might feel hopeless, as if there is nothing you can do to help this person you love who is struggling.

You don’t need to stay this way, feeling as if all hope is lost. You can help your loved one with an addiction intervention strategy, one which can motivate them to get help and treatment.

Motivation is the most significant factor in addiction intervention. When an addict with a substance abuse disorder is motivated, their chances of achieving sobriety at the end of their treatment programme are far higher than someone with no motivation to get better.

Successful alcohol intervention is not about bullying your loved one or forcing them to get help. You need to inspire them, making them truly want to do it and regain their health and life.

To get your loved one on a potential road to treatment, you can speak to a counsellor or contact an addiction treatment agency like Harley St Alcohol Detox Organisation. When you have a trained, compassionate and neutral person to guide this process and help your loved one, it can take anxiety out of the mix and keep everything productive. Sometimes, addiction interventions end in shouting matches that leave everyone feeling defensive and with nothing accomplished. Keeping your loved one on the road to treatment might require some outside help.

The addiction intervention process

There is no one set procedure for addict intervention, but there some guidelines you can follow to increase your chances of success. Keep in mind that the goal of addiction intervention is to provide the addict the motivation they need to seek treatment and to have treatment options ready for them.

Speak to all of the people who currently concerned about the addict’s substance use and behaviour and ask them to take part. On its face, this could appear is if all of you are coming together against the person struggling with addiction. In reality, concern, compassion and love should dominate the tone, along with no personal judgment of the person who needs help. You are working as a team to help the person with an addiction and not teaming up against them.

The time and place of an addiction intervention is another factor that impacts its success. Your intervention should be comforting and neutral to your loved one. If they have any issues with the time or place you’ve selected, they will come into the meeting on the defensive.

Never end an intervention by forcing the addict into treatment. Say what you need to, including the problems you are seeing and the potential consequences of what they choose to do going forward. It helps to prepare written statements to read from ahead of time. Interventions are often emotional, and participants who are not prepared could forget their points or say something they regret.

How to have a successful addiction intervention

While it may sound odd, the focus of an intervention can be on the person with the addiction or the loved ones participating in it. Both of these approaches can be successful, and they also have their unique sets of drawbacks and benefits.

If your intervention is focused on the person with the substance use disorder, the people taking part will take turns to talk about what the addict is doing. The addict has to hear uncomfortable truths about how they behave and what it is costing them in life. It’s like hearing every bad thing you’ve ever done in life out loud. At the very minimum, this is often painful and uncomfortable.

In this type of intervention, each person talks about one or two things they have seen the addict do. Be specific and limit this to behaviours and activities someone actually saw or confirmed. Getting into a debate about areas you can’t prove, such as the addict’s motivations, feelings or thoughts, will only serve to derail the intervention.

When you focus the intervention on the people participating in it, the goal is to have everyone talk about how the addict’s substance abuse disorder has affected them. Everyone who speaks will discuss their feelings, reactions and thoughts concerning the addict. When a person has an addiction, it changes the people around them. Those people may have to lie, walk on eggshells or feel shame. A person married someone with an addiction, for example, may not feel they are able to have friends over to visit.

During an intervention focused on family and friends, each person prepares and reads from a statement that describes their feelings and actions related to the addiction. Instead of talking about the addict, participants share the impact on them so the addict can see how their actions are ruining important relationships and harming people around them. It’s helpful here to use “I” statements here, such as “I am embarrassed that I can’t have friends visit because you are drunk and passed out on the floor.”

In both intervention approaches, you should end with a list of identified consequences for both of the addict’s available routes—enter into treatment or continue to use. Whether they decide to get help or not, there has to be consequences for their choices and behaviour.

Keep in mind that the tone of your intervention should be compassionate and non-judgemental but also with clear boundaries and consequences. The goal is to motivate your loved one to seek treatment because when they really want to do it, they will have a higher chance of successfully completing the programme and becoming sober.

Use the general steps above and keep the tone of the intervention appropriate. When you do this and come prepared with a list of goals and consequences, you will have a better chance of a productive and successful intervention with a positive outcome for your loved one.

Addiction intervention help is available

Harley St Alcohol Detox Organisation is here for you if you need help with your intervention in any way. We know how important this is, and we have extensive experience in supporting families who are dealing with drug and alcohol addiction problems. Contact us today if you have a family member or friend who is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction and needs help.

Don’t forget that an intervention is not necessarily going to be successful the first time you try. In some cases, families have to hold two or three interventions before they are finally able to get through to their loved one.

We are always here to assist you. Please contact us so you can learn more about how we can help your family during this difficult experience. Whatever you do, don’t let the consequences of your loved one’s addiction continue to tear your friends or family apart.