INTERVENTION: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

INTERVENTION: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

INTERVENTION:  DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Kelly Lynne Harris

Nationally Certified Interventionist

B.S., C.M.A.C. II, C.N.D.A.I., C.D.D.C., C.C.F.C.T.

 Most of the time, Intervention is something that a family considers only when a crisis occurs.  Our loved one ends up in jail, overdoses, or causes major wreckage and THEN the family decides that it is time to do an intervention.  An addiction intervention is a carefully controlled process where a trained professional sets up a meeting to mediate a controlled confrontation with the addict.  The direct result of this meeting is that the addict immediately enters treatment.  Families often try to facilitate this process themselves and it turns into a screaming match where everyone feels attacked and it ends up causing more damage the family system.  Another problem with families doing an intervention themselves is that the addict (who is brilliant at it) manipulates the family and does not go directly into treatment.  The addict always says things like “I can do this on my own” and they ALWAYS stall for more time so they don’t have to go into treatment.  This is why it is an absolute necessity to have a professional there to facilitate your loved one’s intervention.  They are specifically trained NOT to let the addict manipulate any member of the family and will accept NOTHING LESS than the addict going into treatment THAT DAY!

 I can’t count how many interventions I have done where the family says “we have tried intervention on our own and it will not work.”    This is ABSOLUTELY not the case.  A professional intervention can be as high as 98% successful if the family follows the direction of the interventionist completely.  This is usually the problem.  Families believe that they know their loved one better then anyone.  But, an addiction interventionist knows “the addict” better than anyone.  When emotions are involved, the family can not clearly see that they need to establish boundaries and consequences in order for their loved one to get clean…and they certainly need help enforcing them.  The interventionist walks the family through every aspect of the process.  We do a codependency training to teach the family how not to enable the addict, we help the family to write a letter to the addict, and we establish and enforce boundaries to ensure that the addict goes into treatment immediately.  Every aspect of the intervention is controlled from how to sit during the intervention to not letting the addict “run the show.”

 If you have a love one that has a drug and alcohol problem, PLEASE don’t let it get to a point that they can’t come back from.  Look at a professional intervention as preventative!  Don’t wait until a crisis occurs and DO NOT TRY TO DO IT ON YOUR OWN.  If your loved one had cancer, you certainly wouldn’t treat them yourself…you would take them to a cancer specialist.  This isn’t any different.  Please call a professional if your loved one has an addiction problem, you may only have one chance to get this right!