Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Drug Addiction Intervention: The Steps to Saving a Loved One

Drug addiction is a disease plagued by chronic relapse and an array of serious side effects. When a family member or loved one is addicted, and you’ve tried to get them to seek help, an intervention may be the only safe, solid solution to the problem. Denial is often an interfering factor for those who are addicted—if such is the case, consider these intervention steps to help you save someone you love:

Get Informed

The first step to staging an intervention is to get informed and understand the addiction as best you can. Talk with a doctor, interventionist or therapist about the addiction. Do your homework and research the addiction so that you know what your friend or loved one is feeling. You may be surprised to learn that drug addiction is often fueled by cravings and physical symptoms of withdrawal that make it difficult for a user to quit even if he or she has good intentions.

Get Involved

An intervention can help your loved one get into treatment.

You’ll have to decide who will participate in the intervention with you. This involves making a logical determination as to who is most important to the user and will have the most influential stance to help encourage him or her to get help. You may include friends, family members, an employer or boss, etc. Be sure that anyone you include in the intervention is not abusing drugs or alcohol with the individual and does not use drugs at all as this can create turmoil and disarray during the intervention process.

Put Your Foot Down

Part of an intervention is about determining a set of consequences that will take place if the user opts away from getting help. This is the time when you must put your foot down and say, “enough is enough.” If the individual doesn’t get help, what consequences will occur? You may consider:

Kicking the individual out of your home
No longer associating with the individual
Seeking legal charges against the individual
No longer supporting the individual

Plan the Intervention

Before the intervention actually takes place, it’s important to plan the important elements out. You may want to work with an interventionist and write a script of how the intervention should play out. Consider:

Who will speak first.
What actions will be taken to ensure that the individual arrives at the intervention.
What actions will be taken if the individual opts not to get help.
Who will pay for the treatment and where the individual will go to treatment if the intervention works.

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Abstinence the path to avoid alcoholism

Parents throughout Victoria and Canada are vehemently opposed to their children taking illicit drugs — but what about the most widely used, and deadliest drug of all? There is a killer that lives among us every day — a killer called alcohol. In recent years, it has been common practice for parents to condone underage….

Alcoholism: Losing Old Friends to Stay Sober

Alcoholism, like many addictions, is a disease of reinforcement. When you take drugs or alcohol, you feel better and when you stop drinking, you miss the feeling. By this same mechanism, the people you associate with can start to reinforce your drinking behavior. Even though, for many, alcoholism ends up being a disease of solitude….

How Much Does Addiction Treatment Cost?

Determining how much addiction treatment will cost can require many different inputs and depending on the outcome, you could come up with a very wide figure range. For small time programs that involve only outpatient services, the cost of treatment may only be about $50-100 per session but for larger, intensive residential treatment programs or….

Retreat Offers Hope for Indian American Women Alcoholics

Indian American women who are struggling with alcohol dependence, depression or substance abuse face unique challenges, according to a team of recovery professionals who are targeting the community. “Living here in the U.S. is a very major stress,” Arun Jethanandani, M.D., told India-West by phone from the Brookhaven Retreat in eastern Tennessee. “Many women have….

Study: Alcohol’s impact on heart, stroke risk differs by gender

Whether drinking alcohol helps or hurts your chances of avoiding heart disease and stroke may depend on your gender as well as how much you imbibe, a new study finds. The report, which appears online July 11 in the journal Stroke, looked at the drinking habits and lifestyles of more than 80,000 Japanese men and….