Tyler Davis
Community Relations Director, Narconon

Interventions can be the difference between life and death for a drug addict or an alcoholic. Not every person in need of rehabilitation immediately accepts the opportunity to get clean and handle the issues that drove them to addiction. While some addicts or alcoholics have been so badly beaten and battered by their lifestyle that they grasp at the first opportunity to deal with their problems, others need an external influence and viewpoint in order to see that they are headed in the wrong direction. An intervention is an extremely helpful tool for families who are dealing with a loved one who is completely against getting help and resists the idea of going to treatment.

Some families believe if an addict or alcoholic isn’t willing to get help on their own, there is no way to convince them. However, within every addict, there is the desire to stop using the drug they know is destroying their life, and it is masked by fear of coming off of the drug and confronting the problems that have ensued with their addiction.

Another interesting fact is that if an addict or alcoholic believes they can continue to drink alcohol or use drugs successfully, without any type of consequences for their behavior, they will continue to do so because the harmful effects on their family and their own life caused by their addiction are still less powerful than the grasp the addiction has on them.

There are two types of interventions; one where the family sits down with the addict and has a professional interventionist conduct a family intervention, where the addict is confronted and offered drug rehabilitation. If they choose not to attend drug rehab, the family gives the addict consequences for their choice. The other type of intervention is done by an interventionist and conducted on a one-on-one basis, where the interventionist works with the addict alone to get their agreement to go to treatment. Once the interventionist, in either case, gets the addict to choose help, they will escort them to the treatment center the family has picked out and get them successfully checked in.

Often, interventionists can be more successful in handling the addict than the family since, in many cases, the interventionist is an ex-addict himself. By having gone through addiction, the interventionist can level with the addict, speak from their reality and truly understand and have empathy for what they are going through. The interventionist is also a neutral party and not heavily emotionally involved in the situation like the family is. Interventions can help an addict make a logical choice for themselves when they might not be able to alone. If an addict is struggling with addiction, but refuses help, interventions can be a powerful tool used to save their life.

For more information on interventions, go to  http://www.narconon-suncoast.org/blog/the-power-of-an-intervention.html .  If you are in need of a referral to a treatment center, call us at (877) 841-5509