Interventions
Family members of alcoholics or drug addicts do not have the luxury of choosing how they feel each day. Their emotions each and every day are chosen for them by the substance abuser. When family members are in this type of emotional state, it is near impossible to make the right choice on how to handle their loved ones addiction problem. Interventions are about making a decision for people who are unable and incapable of making the proper decision for themselve
s. When families ask us about interventions we almost always tell them that the intervention is about the family getting better first and they are sometimes shocked. It would be almost impossible to help anybody with any problem if the person or persons trying to help were physically or emotionally incapable of helping. Right before you fly on an airplane they tell you in the instructions to get your oxygen flowing before helping others. If you didn't do this, you would be of no help to the people in need. More importantly it is far more difficult to help somebody fix a fatal addiction problem if you have no knowledge of addiction or interventions. You can not help someone from drowning in the ocean if you can not swim yourself or have absolutely no knowledge of CPR. Families are emotionally attached and their vision is blurred by love, where as an addict or alcoholic is emotionally attached to their drugs and has blurred vision from the substance abuse. Either way neither party is incapable of handling this themselves. Turning to interventions is the same reason you would turn to a doctor for a health problem.
Drug Interventions
When talking about drug interventions it is important to understand that interventions are for the family to heal and get better first. The goal of drug interventions is to get your loved one to treatment, however intervention does not "fix" the addict or alcoholic. Intervention gets them willing to enter the treatment center without force so they can get better. We tell families all the time that most of the solutions we suggest are probably things they have been told 100 times before by others. That is because these others are also not emotionally attached and see the forest through the trees. The reality is that families would be telling us the same things about drug interventions if it were someone else's family and they were not emotionally attached. Intervention is a very emotionally driven process, however unless we do things differently, the addict or alcoholic will probably get worse. Remember, it is not the families fault their loved one has a substance abuse problem, however unless things change on your end it will probably not get any better. We can only control the controllable things in life, that means your approach to drug interventions.
Alcohol Interventions
Alcohol interventions are designed to bring your loved one to a point in their addiction that is uncomfortable on your terms instead of waiting for them to to hit rock bottom. There is a truth to waiting for bottom, however most bottoms are jails, institutions, and death when left up to the alcoholic to decide when enough is enough. Alcohol interventions brings the addict or alcoholic to a non lethal bottom designed by the family on the families terms. Meeting with an interventions counselor as a family group is the best possible solution for you. The reason being, is you need a non family member who is not emotionally attached to mediate. Someone who can guide you through the manipulation, lies, deceit, and chaos of an addict or alcoholics life style. A professional who has performed countless alcohol interventions, has been in the addicts shoes, and knows exactly what you are going through, will give the highest chance of success your loved one will end up in treatment. Families always ask "can't we do this ourselves". The answer is yes and no. We tell families all the time you can probably over time convince them to go, however it is highly unlikely you will get them to stay. Unless addicts and alcoholics go to treatment for themselves and not for the family or something else, then the probability of long term sobriety is unlikely. Our interventions are about getting them there and keeping them there.
