If your loved one struggles with substance abuse but has yet to get help, you may not know what to do anymore.
It may be time to stage an intervention, but your loved one’s future is at stake, so you don’t want to just wing it. Your mind is probably racing with questions about drug abuse interventions, but you are not sure where to turn. As a Certified Intervention Professional, Brandon Novak is answering your most burning drug intervention questions so that your intervention has the greatest chance of success.
What Is A Drug Intervention?
Before you can even begin to start planning one, you need to know what a drug intervention is. An intervention is a gathering of a person’s loved ones where the group tries to get the person to seek professional help for a problem such as a drug or alcohol addiction.Many people mistakenly believe that the only goal of one of these meetings for someone with a substance abuse problem is to get the addict into addiction treatment, but an intervention can be so much more than that. A good intervention will not only get the addict into treatment, but it is also meant to be the first step in helping loved ones heal from the damage that an addiction has caused.
How Do You Stage a Drug Intervention?
While you may have seen clips of interventions on television or the movies, trying to stage one on your own is complicated. A successful drug intervention is a complex process that involves several steps and requires a lot of planning. Before you stage a drug intervention, you should pick who will attend, choose a time and location, research addiction, ask participants to write a script, meet with everyone beforehand, plan out the structure of the meeting, and rehearse. The meeting itself should be well structured and organized, with people only speaking at their pre-planned times if possible. Because of the complexities involved in this process, it is better to get help from a professional who has experience with interventions.What Do You Say at a Drug Intervention?
Interventions can be emotional, so it is important to plan what you are going to say before the meeting. Usually, participants will write an impact letter that focuses on how the addiction has impacted them personally. These letters should not point fingers at the addict, but rather focus on the person’s concerns for their loved one and be supportive of their loved one getting treatment. This pre-planned script helps keep emotions at bay that could leave the addict feeling attacked and derail the meeting.Do Drug Interventions Work?
The success rate of drug interventions is hard to define because people define success differently and there are also many different types of interventions. While you can try to hold one of these meetings on your own, they often get emotional and when these emotions run wild, the success rate goes down. The most successful interventions are those that are led by a professional. These people are trained to stage these meetings and act as a sturdy, impartial party. Some research suggests that interventions involving these professionals results in the addict agreeing to get treatment about 90% of the time.1If your loved one is an addict, there is hope. Brandon Novak’s past involved drug and alcohol abuse, but he was able to successfully turn his life around; your loved one could too.
