Are you concerned about the well-being of a loved one because of their drug or alcohol addiction? Addiction leads people to commit crimes and ruin their relationships with the people they care for.
The last thing you want to see happen is your loved one end up behind bars or, worse, dead. It’s for this reason we’ve created a guide that details the importance of intervention.
By the time you’re done scrolling through this post, you’re going to have everything you need and can begin staging an intervention to help get your loved ones the help they need.
What is an Intervention?
An intervention is when family and sometimes friends come together with the help of an interventionist to offer someone in their life that’s suffering from addiction help to get better. The reason you’ll work with an interventionist is that they’ve got substance abuse training that will prove useful in this situation.
Sometimes you’ll find that an interventionist is a recovering addict themselves and have at one point in their lives been in the same place as your loved one. If you’ve ever heard of the show Intervention, you’d know that most of their intervention specialists have years of sobriety behind them.
What Will an Interventionist Do?
The interventionist will work with you and your family from beginning to end of the process. In the beginning stages of the intervention process, the interventionist will help the family see how their role in the addict’s life contributes to their disease.
They will help identify enabling and codependent behaviors that will change if the intervention is to work successfully. They will also take this time to detail what will happen when the intervention takes place.
The interventionist will choose the format or structure that the intervention will follow and help with the intervention planning making themselves available for questions from the family during the entire process. A huge part of their job is to help the family determine when is the best time to bring their loved one into the intervention.
Different Types of Interventions
A family might choose to use several types of interventions as the format for their specific intervention. The first is a simple intervention when only one family member is involved in the intervention.
For some addicts, a one-on-one intervention will have more impact than if their entire family was present. Another type of intervention is known as the classical intervention.
This is when a family comes together, as mentioned earlier, to plan and learn what roles they’ve played in their loved one’s addiction. There will be ample support for both your family and the addict involved.
Crisis intervention is when an addict has become dangerous, and the need for rehab is essential to them continuing to be alive. In this type of intervention, family members are asked to exhibit tough love because, without it, the addict can find themselves hitting rock bottom sooner than they thought.
The last type of intervention we want to detail for you is the family system intervention. This intervention relies heavily on the family for things to run smoothly.
How to Do an Intervention?
The first step you must take when planning an intervention is to seek help from a professional. In this case, that would be hiring an interventionist to help the plans run accordingly.
During this step, you’ll need to contact family members and friends who will be involved in the intervention. Once you’ve contact people, you will begin to form the team that will actively be a part of the intervention.
We recommend that if someone struggles with their own addiction, you do not include them because they can derail the entire intervention. Once you meet with the interventionist, you’ll develop a plan that includes things like:
- Date for the intervention
- Time
- Location
- Intervention team
You’ll also note what will happen on the day of the intervention and what everyone will be assigned to do during that time. The next step of the process will be getting educated about the disease of addiction.
Not only will your family learn, but you’ll also be given information about various rehabilitation programs that your loved one might be able to enter if they accept treatment. Impact statements might be required to detail how your loved one’s addiction has impacted your life and to detail the boundaries that you will set if the person refuses to get treatment.
Ensure that you manage your expectations for the day because there is a chance the addict in your life will refuse treatment. If that happens, you need to stick to the boundaries you’ve set.
After this, you’ll rehearse, and then it’s time to wait until the day arrives.
Don’t of Interventions
While there are many things you should do during interventions, there’s also a list of things you should refrain from doing. The first don’t of an intervention is calling the addict things like “a junkie.”
Name-calling comes off as accusatory and will make your loved one feel as if they’re being attacked. Another thing you shouldn’t do during interventions is allowing your emotions to overwhelm you.
If you’re acting based on emotion, there’s no telling what you’ll say or do. And it can cause you to lose sight of what the intervention is really about.
Having too many people can always be detrimental to the intervention. Ensure that you keep the intervention team intimate.
Goal of an Intervention
The goal of the intervention is to get your loved ones the help they need. You want them to know that you care about them and their well-being.
An intervention is also to let them know that you’re going to be seeking help if you’ve got codependency issues that will allow you to provide them the support they need once they’ve completed treatment.
What’s the Importance of an Intervention?
The importance of an intervention is to help your loved one live a better and healthier life. There are different types of interventions, but the first thing you need to do is find an interventionist to help.
Once you’ve done this, it’s time to think about the treatment facility that will be able to help your loved one get their life back. Contact New Leaf Detox & Treatment.
We can help your loved one turn over a new leaf and start overcoming addiction today.
