Staging A Successful Drug Intervention: 10 Things To Note

A drug intervention is a carefully planned process done by family members and friends to help the addict take the right path to recovery.

The effects of someone’s addiction stretches far beyond them. When a person is suffering from addiction, it is not them that they are suffering alone; their immediate family members and close friends can feel the impact too.

Whether it’s a child, parents, spouse, friends, or colleagues, addiction changes everything depending on how you prioritize them.

What’s more, addiction not only affects the relationship, it destabilizes your finances and exposes you to several health risks.

When your family member or friend is suffering from addiction and is not willing to accept that they are addicted, the only way to make them understand its consequences is by intervention.

What Is A Drug Intervention?

Addiction might be a chronic disease that people think only affects the patients. Well, the truth is that addiction is a family disease. When a person from the family falls victim to addiction, the whole family suffers together.

When the family realizes the addiction, they try to talk with them and realize the dangers lurking underneath the addiction. This is the concept that backs intervention.

If we go by the definition, intervention is a carefully planned process done by family members, friends, or people close to you. It is similar to a group meeting attended by close people under the supervision of a doctor or an intervention specialist.

Here is what an intervention offers:

• Highlight the destructive behaviors and how it is affecting precious people around them.
• Offers a pre-arrangement treatment plan with clear steps, goals, and guidelines.
• Give everyone a chance to place their thoughts on the table for the addict to see.

Although intervention is a process that can be done without a supervisor, you must have one. This is because they have more experience in conducting the intervention.

That being said, if the intervention is successful and the patient is ready to enter an addiction recovery program, be prepared with personalized addiction treatment programs in Dallas.

Preparing an addiction recovery treatment program beforehand makes the next step simple and efficient.

Types Of Intervention

Though intervention is the process of a group discussion where close friends and family members gather and convince the patients to seek medical treatment, it is classified into four different types:

1. Simple Intervention

The simple intervention process is quite simple. You do not always need an intervention to confront the addicts and stop the addiction. It’s just one loved one and a simple request to stop doing it.

The one-to-one intervention is quite effective and does the job most of the time.

2. Classical Intervention

A classical intervention is the joint effort of the people around the addict to stop them from moving forward with their addiction.

In the classical intervention, everybody is present except the patient. This involves the education and counseling of the people around the addicts.

It teaches people how to behave and what to talk about in front of the patient.

3. Family System Intervention

Family system intervention only works when you have a well-distributed family network and close bonding among each other.

In this type of intervention, family members talk with the patients and try to make them understand the consequences of addiction and encourage them to seek help.

4. Crisis Intervention

Crisis intervention happens when the addicts need the help of rehab immediately.

This happens when the patient suffering from addiction reaches the bottom of their addiction and has no control of their body, action, and behavior.

In this situation, the only method that helps is what we call Tough Love.

10 Things You Need To Know To Stage A Successful Drug Intervention

You have decided to stage an intervention to coerce your addicted friend or family member into receiving treatment. Hopefully, you have consulted a specialist.

Regardless, you need to move forward because your loved one’s addiction can be stalled any further.

However, before getting started, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind while staging a drug intervention:

1. Stage A Drug Intervention When Patient Is Sober

It is important that you are staging an intervention when the patient is not under the influence of any addiction.

This way, you will ensure that they are making conscious decisions and addiction has no role to play.

2. Don’t Ask Emotional Family Members To Become The Part Of Intervention.

Intervention is a process where you need to talk to the patients and empathize with them. Here emotions will only affect the intervention.

So, while staging an intervention, ensure that you are not asking any emotional family member to join.

3. Stage Intervention Somewhere Isolated Or New

Staging an intervention close to a place where the addiction started might not be a good choice.

Always plan an intervention in a place that is far from the hometown with fewer people.

This will make the patient comfortable knowing that his addiction is kept secret from others.

4. Plan The Words You Want To Say

Don’t talk about just anything that comes to your mind. Plan your words. You must have a small note outlining what you want to talk about in proper order.

This will maintain the flow of the conversation and ensure your words are not offensive.

5. Stop Talking In Generalities

You are not talking about every addicted person in the world. In fact, you don’t even care what happens to them. You only care about the family member who is addicted.

So, stop talking about generalities. Instead, be specific with your world so that the person sitting in front of you can understand.

6. Intervention Is Not About Negotiation

Intervention is not about negotiation. If you give them a small gap to negotiate, your intervention will be considered a failure.

This is because the whole purpose of intervention is to get a YES or NO.

7. If Things Is Not Going Your Way, Stay Calm

Things not going your way are a part of the process – stay calm. Patients suffering from addiction react differently when confronted by people.

Be flexible to what may happen and think about every possible scenario that can happen. This will help you keep the intervention running.

8. Avoid Imposing Any Guilt

The last thing you would add to the conversation is imposing guilt. This will not only make the patient feel ashamed of their action but will also make the whole situation worse.

9. Plan Your Intervention

Interventions are not just any random process. You cannot just ask people to become a part of the intervention and speak their minds.

Every action needs to be planned so that the person suffering from addiction doesn’t feel overwhelmed.

10. Hope Is Always There!

Even if the intervention process ends up with NO, it is not the end. It simply means you were not able to convey your feelings properly. You just need to take the intervention to the next stage.

Final Thoughts

Intervention is a process that comes with a YES or NO. Of course, the best outcome is an immediate YES. And yes, people do agree to seek addiction recovery after the intervention is completed.

But, even with a NO, don’t think the intervention process to be a failure. It just means that you need to keep going because your every effort is worth it.