At times Family First Intervention is asked to appear in newspaper articles or on videos to talk about intervention and addiction. When this happens we like to share these videos and stories with families as they relate to the situation the family is facing at home. Most of our clients and stories are amazingly similar in that the addict or alcoholic is destroying their lives and disrupting and damaging the family along the way. Although Family First Intervention is made up of professionals, there is no replacement for having someone help that has walked in the shoes of the addicted one and the family. Weather we are on the front page of a newspaper, being interviewed on television, giving a speech to a high school or talking one on one with a family, we are able to relate not only to the situation the family is going through but what the addict or alcoholic is going through and what it is they will do next.
Many families ask us how real is the intervention television show. The answer is pretty real, except for two major things. The show portrays very little of what an intervention is about and why they are successful; intervention is about the family meeting and preparation first, facing the addict or alcoholic second. We actually spend more time preparing the family than actually doing the intervention on the addict or alcoholic. Secondly, when watching the show, movie cameras follow around the addict or alcoholic for 3o days. This filming of course takes away all denial of how much or what it is the person is abusing. In the real world of addiction and intervention almost everyone is denial and doesn’t think they have a problem. When in the field doing an actual intervention, we never had that footage of them drinking or drugging so we are almost always reliant upon the behaviors rather than how much or how little the addict or alcoholic is using. The drugs and alcohol is just the solution to the underlying; focusing on behaviors rather than the amount of the drug or alcohol use proves to be a far more successful solution.