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

Who Answers?

How Interventions Encourage Individuals Make the Decision to Get Help

The reality of drug or alcohol addiction is that the addiction is a disease that can ruin lives and ultimately kill the addict. When an individual is addicted to drugs or alcohol they are at risk of getting in trouble with the law, suffering medical problems, ruining relationships with their children or families, losing their job, and ultimately, winding up alone with nothing but their addiction to live with. Does this sound like someone you love? If so, it doesn’t have to be this way! Interventions can help an addict to see the light at the end of the tunnel and make the decision to accept help when it is offered to them.

Controlling an addiction is like trying to control a plane that is plummeting to the ground at 200 mph in a downward spin—it’s nearly impossible, but all hope is not lost until the very end. Similarly, addiction is like a downward spiral but there is always hope that it can stop, that the addict can be saved and that a new life can be lived. For some, intervention is the only way that their life can be saved.

What is Intervention?

An intervention is a way of encouraging an addict to seek treatment and heal from their addiction. There are two ways that an intervention is commonly approached. The first is called an invitational approach and the second type is the surprise approach.

Under an invitational approach to an intervention, a team of family members, interventionists and loved ones come together and figure out how they can effectively interrupt the addiction of their loved one. Typically the group will come together and invite the addict to talk with the group about their addiction and the treatment that is available to them.

Under the surprise approach to an intervention the addict does not know that an intervention is going to occur. Although this approach can be much more difficult for the addict to handle it is vital to some because many addicts will not come to talk with their family members or loved ones about their problem and treatment willingly. The surprise approach to an intervention involves the intervention team getting together prior to talking with the addict and they will develop a plan for the treatment so that all they have to do is get the addict to accept the help and then whisk them off to a treatment center immediately to prevent any further drug use.

How an Intervention Helps an Addict

Interventions work to help the addict by encouraging them to seek treatment when it’s needed. If an individual can find some type of motivation to stop using drugs or alcohol (often this motivation is found when they hear friends and family members discuss how badly they are hurting as a result of the addiction) and if the loved ones are able to change the attitudes they have relating to the addiction then there’s a good chance that the intervention will work. An intervention is just the beginning to a long road of recovery but can be the starting point to a new life.

For more information about intervention or for help finding a local interventionist that can help you or a loved one, call 1-888-461-2155 to speak with a referral specialist about your needs.

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Anti-binge laws help slow drunken violence

Police say alcohol-fuelled violence is on the decline in bars and on city streets after the province introduced new liquor rules to discourage binge drinking. Provincial legislation launched last August prohibits happy hour specials after 8p.m., requires bars and pubs to charge a minimum drink price and forbids patrons from having more than two drinks….

Alcohol on the brain: a look at the long term

For years, Ben had assumed all alcoholics were homeless men huddling below bridges inside cardboard boxes and nursing bottles out of paper bags like he saw in movies. But that was before Ben began college and came to know an alcoholic much more personally — himself. In less than one semester, Ben, who did not….

Things to Avoid When Choosing the Right Treatment Center

The decision to seek treatment is a tough decision to make but the challenge doesn’t end there. Once you have opted to seek help there are a number of challenges that surround you such as trying to find the best type of treatment and choosing between various treatment centers that provide a range of services….

Women who binge drink more likely to engage in unsafe sex

A U.S. study says women who have more than five alcoholic drinks at one sitting are at increased risk of having unsafe sex and contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Researchers at John Hopkins University medical school in Baltimore looked at the correlation between binge drinking and risky sexual behaviours in women. They interviewed patients at an….

The Business of Opium in Afghanistan: Drug Addiction

Afghanistan supplies virtually all of the world’s illegal opium. Last year, the country’s drug trade was a $4-billion business, half of which alone was produced in the south where the fighting against the Taliban insurgency is the fiercest. Getting Afghanistan to rid itself of poppy is a pillar of U.S. policy there, because the Taliban….