Intervention and Drug Addiction

When you have a friend or a family member who is struggling with drug addiction, often staging an intervention can be an effective way to help them face their addiction and get help.  Intervention involves getting a variety of people together who have been affected by the user’s addiction in a neutral location and telling the user how their addiction has affected their lives.

Intervention isn’t an easy process and it’s certainly not an easy situation.  It requires extensive planning and meeting prior to the actual day and knowing what you want to say and how you want to say it.

If you are thinking about an intervention, you first need to get the help of a professional – someone who is experienced in drug abuse and addiction and someone who can effectively moderate the intervention as it is going on.  This professional can not only help the drug user but he or she can help you too as you deal with your feelings about the whole thing.

You may initially be apprehensive and confused.  You may be angry or hurt.  You may be afraid that when you confront the user about their habits that they will hate you for it.  Know that this is a real possibility – at least at first.  The whole idea behind an intervention is to let the user know that when they use drugs, their addiction affects more than just them.  It affects those around them, and they need to know exactly how.

There is no absolute right way to intervene in someone else's life. In fact, there is a school of thought that argues that any form of intervention is abhorrent, a violation of free speech and of an individual's right to choose. Nevertheless, as individuals and as a society we are always influencing others whether or not we want to, and sometimes we decide to intervene purposefully.

A simple intervention is done when you want the person with the drug addiction to get help for their problem.  A crisis intervention is done when there is a behavior or behaviors that have reached dangerous proportions like the threat of death, use of weapons, or being arrested.  The point of crisis intervention is to step in, calm the crisis, and restore safety to all involved.

In an intervention, all attention is focused on the person with the drug addiction.  Participants are encouraged to be completely honest, even brutally honest, as they related how the addiction has caused them problems or concern.  The atmosphere will be uncomfortable and even angry, but this will subside as the addict begins to realize their addiction is bigger than him or her.

Intervention for drug addiction is the most loving, powerful and successful method yet for helping people accept help. A family intervention can be done with love and respect in a non-confrontational, non-judgmental manner. Drug addiction affects more than just the addict.  A family intervention is often the answer, the only answer. It can be done. It can be done now.