All too often it is thought the intervention process is just about talking an alcoholic or a drug addict into changing and heading off to treatment. Although we do pair up the interventionist to the alcoholic or addict to establish the best connection, the real work of the intervention is in the family day preparation prior to the intervention day. There are all types of interventions for addiction, drugs & alcohol and although the reactions of the addict or alcoholic are different, the families almost always suffer through the same scenarios. Everything the family knows about the addiction is a learned behavior over time taught to the family by the manipulations and cons of the addict or alcoholic. Families don’t like to hear that they are as addicted to their loved one as their loved one is addicted to drugs or alcohol, but it is true. Every time I am on the phone with a family you actually hear the addiction in them as they have been connected to an alcoholic or drug addict over time. Families, like addicts and alcoholics, try to put off doing intervention or following professional advice because deep down inside they either want to fix the problem themselves, think it will correct itself, don’t think it will work or just simply are too afraid to change.
Arranging the intervention for the family is far more difficult than getting the addict or alcoholic to accept help. Intervention statistics show it is extremely more difficult to get a family of 3 or more to agree to the intervention process than it is to get the one alcoholic or addict to say yes and go to addiction treatment. The intervention facts are on the table; no addict or alcoholic can get high or drunk on their own resources alone. Like fuel to a fire, addiction needs enabling and or the addict or alcoholic to be in a position of emotional control. The emotional control can happen without any enabling at all, such as just having the ability to hurt the people who love them the most. Addicts and alcoholics want to be shown they are worthy and loved; they want to be saved. The worst form of enabling can just simply be doing nothing at all. No addict or alcoholic is going to want help unless the situation changes on the families part as to make the addict or alcoholic accountable for their addiction; the family has control over that part and doesn’t have to wait.