addiction specialists: Addiction Interventions

The odds are good that you’re at least passingly familiar with the show Intervention, but what exactly are interventions used for? How are they done? Are they only done for specific addictions? Can anybody do them or do you need to get an addiction specialist involved to make sure that it’s done properly?

What’s an Intervention?
At it’s most basic an intervention is when a person, or more often a group of people, expresses their concern to an addict about their destructive behavior in the hopes that this will convince them to seek treatment for their condition. On a more complex level it’s a method of allowing family and friends of an addict to express concern about an addiction that the addict may not even be willing to admit they have and to convince them otherwise so that they’ll seek treatment.

Only For Specific Addictions?
Sure you usually see interventions in fiction for those addicted to alcohol, drugs, or gambling, but they can really be used for any addiction or compulsion. Self-mutilation, tobacco use, eating disorders, TV and video game addictions, and even workaholism.

An intervention is about helping somebody you care about overcome a destructive behavior that is impacting their life in a negative way – it doesn’t matter what the addiction is or whether it’s something as damaging as an addiction to narcotics that can have legal as well as health implications or TV addiction that is more about the social implications.

Who Can Perform One?
While it’s true that on the television shows where you see interventions being performed you typically have an addiction specialist of some type, you don’t specifically need one on hand when you perform your own intervention. The only people that you really need at an intervention are people that care about the addict that you’re doing the intervention for.

Friends, family, pastors, co-workers, anybody that is aware of the problem, has been effected by the addiction, and that wants to see the person afflicted with the addiction get better by getting treatment for their addiction. The important part is to make sure that those in attendance aren’t going to be antagonistic, as this isn’t about attacking the person with the addiction but making sure they realize that you want them to get better and that by not hurting themselves anymore.

How Do You Do One?
There’s not really a formula for performing an intervention. On television you typically see those in attendance read off the ways in which the addicts disease is hurting not only them, but those around them and why they want them to get treatment. While this certainly is a viable option, the only thing you need to know is that the right way to perform an intervention is to make sure that the person the intervention is for doesn’t feel attacked. Everything else is up to you.

Showing You Care
Interventions are a great way to show that you care about somebody and that you see how they’re hurting themselves. Remember that you can’t force somebody to seek treatment, but hopefully an intervention will be a great way for them to see that you feel like they’re hurting themselves and will seek the treatment on their own.

 

 

KLEAN Radio – 24 – Patty Baret, Lauren Trager Arborio, Lenny Wilson – Andrew and Judah welcome addiction specialists Patty Baret and Lauren Trager Arborio and Comedian Lenny Wilson. KLEAN Radio is a radio show broadcast every Sunday night at 8 pm on 830 AM from the Angel’s Stadium in Anaheim, CA covering addiction and recovery issues with an interesting mix of celebrities and treatment experts. Klean Radio is hosted by Klean CEO, Andrew Spanswick and the only Republican Jew with a sense of humor, Judah Friedman. KLEAN RADIO – ‪www.kleanradio.com Friend us on Facebook *optimized for portable devices

 

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