Addiction - Five Steps to an Intervention That"s Going to Get Them into Treatment!
Interventions work.
Nagging, yelling, pleading or crying, none of these work at all, they may make you and the addict feel bad, but they'll never get them to stop drinking or drugging.
What is an intervention? It's simply a structured confrontation between the addict/alcoholic and the family.
The family gathers together, sits the addict down, and forces them to hear how their use harms everyone in the family as it also harms them personally.
The point of the intervention is to get the addict to concede that they do have a problem and that they do need help; and at the end of the intervention, to have them proceed immediately into treatment that has been prearranged for them.
Interventions work better than 80% of the time to get a still using addict into treatment, but a poorly run, emotional and confrontational intervention is actually worse than doing nothing at all.
Follow these 5 steps to ensure that your intervention goes as planned 1 Practice Most people will never before have participated in an intervention, they may be unsure of how it should run or what they should say, and they may be feeling real apprehension over the idea of confronting an addict.
Getting the family all together for at least one practice-run prior to the day of the event can help to ensure that all know what they should do and what they need to say.
Having a rehearsal can also help to lessen some anxiety for those family members nervous about an honest confrontation.
Ask each family member to prepare in writing specific examples of how the drinking or drugging has affected their relationship, has affected them personally, and how they have seen the addict change over the course of the years.
You need to get the addict to understand that their abuse affects all in the family, and although they harm themselves most, they do harm to others as well.
2 Include everyone Successful interventions include all meaningful people in the addict's life.
One of the major goals of an intervention is to break down any insulating walls of denial.
At best, an intervention needs to include all people of importance in the addict's life.
Any significant omissions allow the addict to maintain a state of denial, thinking that although some seem to think they have a substance abuse problem, others not present obviously do not feel the same way.
Additionally, never attempt to spare the very young or the very old from the truth or from the turmoil of the intervention.
They are affected by the behaviors of the addict, they also love the addict, and they deserve to be included in all stages of the recovery process.
Children can also offer very powerful testimonies that are very hard to ignore 3 Include an ultimatum The carrot and the stick; through the obvious trouble that you have gone through to arrange for the intervention and for treatment, you show that you love and care about the still using addict very much.
The best interventions also include the stick, or a consequence that will come into play if they refuse to accept the family's offer of help.
4 Say what you need to say, but say it with love You may need to be brutally honest, and need to say some pretty hard and painful things.
Addiction creates pain, and that pain ripples deep into the family; but whatever you say, you need to ensure that you always say it with love and with concern.
As soon as you start to berate, to speak with anger or get emotional, you reduce the power of your message.
Don't allow the addict to get defensive to get emotional, speak honestly and calmly, and force them to listen and accept what you have to say.
5 Have treatment prearranged At best, you get them to accept of a need for treatment.
If they do accept that they need help, get them into the car and get them immediately into rehab.
Waiting does nothing but give them a chance to change their mind, to go on a binge or to otherwise delay for too long what's obviously needed.
Have treatment already arranged for, have the bags packed and responsibilities taken care of.
There should be no obstacles to an immediate entry into a treatment program.
You can make a difference, you never need to wait for them to hit rock bottom, and interventions almost always work.
Make things better.
Nagging, yelling, pleading or crying, none of these work at all, they may make you and the addict feel bad, but they'll never get them to stop drinking or drugging.
What is an intervention? It's simply a structured confrontation between the addict/alcoholic and the family.
The family gathers together, sits the addict down, and forces them to hear how their use harms everyone in the family as it also harms them personally.
The point of the intervention is to get the addict to concede that they do have a problem and that they do need help; and at the end of the intervention, to have them proceed immediately into treatment that has been prearranged for them.
Interventions work better than 80% of the time to get a still using addict into treatment, but a poorly run, emotional and confrontational intervention is actually worse than doing nothing at all.
Follow these 5 steps to ensure that your intervention goes as planned 1 Practice Most people will never before have participated in an intervention, they may be unsure of how it should run or what they should say, and they may be feeling real apprehension over the idea of confronting an addict.
Getting the family all together for at least one practice-run prior to the day of the event can help to ensure that all know what they should do and what they need to say.
Having a rehearsal can also help to lessen some anxiety for those family members nervous about an honest confrontation.
Ask each family member to prepare in writing specific examples of how the drinking or drugging has affected their relationship, has affected them personally, and how they have seen the addict change over the course of the years.
You need to get the addict to understand that their abuse affects all in the family, and although they harm themselves most, they do harm to others as well.
2 Include everyone Successful interventions include all meaningful people in the addict's life.
One of the major goals of an intervention is to break down any insulating walls of denial.
At best, an intervention needs to include all people of importance in the addict's life.
Any significant omissions allow the addict to maintain a state of denial, thinking that although some seem to think they have a substance abuse problem, others not present obviously do not feel the same way.
Additionally, never attempt to spare the very young or the very old from the truth or from the turmoil of the intervention.
They are affected by the behaviors of the addict, they also love the addict, and they deserve to be included in all stages of the recovery process.
Children can also offer very powerful testimonies that are very hard to ignore 3 Include an ultimatum The carrot and the stick; through the obvious trouble that you have gone through to arrange for the intervention and for treatment, you show that you love and care about the still using addict very much.
The best interventions also include the stick, or a consequence that will come into play if they refuse to accept the family's offer of help.
4 Say what you need to say, but say it with love You may need to be brutally honest, and need to say some pretty hard and painful things.
Addiction creates pain, and that pain ripples deep into the family; but whatever you say, you need to ensure that you always say it with love and with concern.
As soon as you start to berate, to speak with anger or get emotional, you reduce the power of your message.
Don't allow the addict to get defensive to get emotional, speak honestly and calmly, and force them to listen and accept what you have to say.
5 Have treatment prearranged At best, you get them to accept of a need for treatment.
If they do accept that they need help, get them into the car and get them immediately into rehab.
Waiting does nothing but give them a chance to change their mind, to go on a binge or to otherwise delay for too long what's obviously needed.
Have treatment already arranged for, have the bags packed and responsibilities taken care of.
There should be no obstacles to an immediate entry into a treatment program.
You can make a difference, you never need to wait for them to hit rock bottom, and interventions almost always work.
Make things better.
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