We all know the types of interventions we see on TV, made infamous by the popular reality TV series, “Intervention”. Now, many of us feel as though we know all about drug and alcohol addiction interventions because of this, though that couldn’t be further from the truth. Truthfully, interventions are quite varied and unique style to style, and some styles are in fact so different from each other that they are hardly recognizable as both being interventions.
“Emotional” interventions are the material of mindless television reality shows, played for laughter on sitcoms and shock on soap operas and essentially made up for the purposes of entertainment. In real life, if individuals taking part in a real intervention try to perform like they saw on tv they can do immense damage. Whatever love the assembled party may truly bear for the addict will be buried in a painful mound of stabbing, biting accusations and pointing fingers and harsh declarations, until the addict feels more preached at than helped and may end the period more than ready to leave their lives for good, a result that you definitely don’t want to get out of an intervention. However, in a well-thought-out, well planned, and well-executed intervention, (a thoughtful intervention), each individual involved in the intervention calmly and with minimal emotional attachment tells the addict key points like the following things:
• How good they remember life being with him
• How his habit has changed him for the worse
• How painful this is for them and those in their care to watch
• How much they love him and want to see him better
• How they will have to change their interactions with him if he refuses to seek recovery
The Importance of Interventions
In the year of 2010, drug and alcohol abuse planted itself firmly in third place for leading causes of preventable death in the United States of America. This should have been a major wakeup call for such addicts and individuals, but as it were addiction is sadly far more powerful than common sense. To shed light on this, in the United States today, drug and alcohol abuse kills more Americans than all other types of preventable causes of death except for smoking and obesity alone. For additional insight into this, total drug overdoses killed more Americans than firearms or motor vehicle accidents in 2010, and in all the years following it.
How to Make it Work with a Thoughtful Intervention
Perhaps the most important thing about an intervention is staying calm. Maintaining a strong level of calm in such a hive of raw and stressed nerves is best and most easily accomplished with the help of a family mediator, or interventionist. This will double the chances of success of any intervention. This professional will work with participating family members and loved ones of the addict before the intervention actually occurs to help them sort out how they wish to go about approaching the addict and what would be most effective for them to say to the addict. The interventionist will also of course be present during the actual intervention itself to soothe ruffled tempers and keep the meeting focused on getting help for the addict. The interventionist will help keep the intervention on track and stop it from splintering off into something else.
Carrying out an intervention is not a particularly easy thing to do. It never has been. It probably never will be. However, with the above tips and advices it can be manageable and doable, and it is hoped that these advices be followed to achieve maximum results.
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