Substance abuse and addiction are problems that millions of American’s face every day. Families and friends of addicts have an especially difficult time because they have to sit and watch the chaos and turmoil unravel around them. In many cases, they might have anger, pity or resentment towards the addict because of their behavior. This makes it more difficult for an addict to get help for their addiction because it often drives them away from those who have healthy relationships with and deeper into addiction. Support is an integral part of the rehabilitation process. When family and friends want to get involved in the rehabilitation process it can go a long way. The most popular way family and friends confront an addiction is through an intervention. There are many types of interventions to choose from and they should be analyzed to select the right one.
Intervention
The Arise addiction intervention is a flexible approach to an intervention. It focuses on the entire family as a whole by figuring out how the entire family, not just the addict, can help and play a role in getting help. Systemic interventions show how to encourage the addict to get help. Only behaviors and interactions that encourage positive abstinence are emphasized. Crisis model interventions are held at a period of weakness and when the addict’s substance abuse is potentially fatal. The Johnson model of addiction interventions purpose is to pull the addict out of their self-denial and see the problem with their addiction, by assembling all family and friends in their lives. Field model interventions are a combination of love first and Johnson model intervention. This model allows for more flexibility of the intervention for the professional intervention specialist.
Love First Intervention
The Love First model of addiction intervention was created less than twenty years ago and has steadily been growing in popularity. This model aims to confront the addiction problem by providing firm, love, and care for the addict. It is not a surprise type of intervention. The addict is invited to the meeting and it can be organized and managed by an addiction professional. The most important part of this type of intervention and others is creating the team of individuals that will be present. This is the first step and should involve only close, loving and responsible friends and family. This group of people will meet several times before the intervention to discuss the process. Younger members of the family are not encouraged to engage in this process because they may not be capable of writing in the letter process or mature enough to handle the situation. There are four main parts of the letter: recap of relationship, damage of addiction, health and other life consequences of continued substance abuse, and finally the bottom line or consequences of continued drug abuse. These letters will be scrutinized over for days before the intervention. They will be read aloud in order leading up to the most impactful letter.
Addicts are invited to the intervention in a neutral and comfortable meeting place. The team assembled will read their letters to the addict, but leave out the last part of the letter concerning their ‘bottom line.’ The letters will continue to be read until the addict chooses to get help. At any point, when the addict agrees to enter treatment, the addiction intervention will immediately end and the addict taken to a treatment center. If the addict gets loud or angry, the team must remain calm and wait for their outbursts to subside. The last part of the Love First Intervention is to read the ‘bottom line’ portion of the member’s letters to show the addict where they stand moving forward. The love first intervention model is growing in popularity because it is successful and more appealing to families and friends of addicts.
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