What You Need to Know About Interventions
Most families that are noticing that one of their members has an alcohol or other drug problem or addiction, are routinely noticing this fact long after someone should have been intervening on this problem. We can make that generalization because families are systems that love each other and part of that love is to expect the same behaviors that have been part of the family system for years. When a member gets an addiction, most people in the family know that there is a problem, but they minimize the extent of the problem until it gets worse and become a serious addiction.
This is a generalization, but in the 35 years that I have been in this field, it plays out more often than not that families cannot confront one of their loved ones having an addiction problem. Some of the reason rest in the stigma that society puts on this problem so family have a hard time thinking with the idea that their "little Johnny" could actually be stealing and meeting drug dealers on the streets where he knows he shouldn't even be hanging out.
Of course another reason that this problem goes on for some time without being addressed is because many of the behaviors that come from the drugs that people get addicted to, do not cause strange behaviors. A person can be addicted to opiates and the family may not have any idea that he has a problem for years. I have worked with "impaired physicians" (doctors that are junkies) who have kept their opiate secret for twenty years and then it gets so severe that they fall asleep during surgery or something really bizarre and someone turns the into the hospital administrator or to a board of directors and the secret comes to light.
If you have discovered that someone close to you has a drug or alcohol addiction and when you have talked to them about your concerns, they respond by telling you that you are blowing some incident out of perspective, and you want to find out the truth...well you probably will never know the whole truth about how severe is the addiction. Even in treatment centers, we have a difficult time getting an addict or alcoholic to admit how much they are using and how far their addiction has taken them.
But if you have talked as a family and you know that the problem isn't going to go away by addressing it in a logical manner, then it is time to decide if your family should do the intervention without the assistance of a professional, or if you want to contract with someone who is experienced in doing interventions.
As a seasoned and licensed professional in this field with over 35 years of experience, I have seen some "professional interventionist" that have really botched up the job that they were paid to accomplish.
My routine advice is to try it as a family first and if it doesn't work, then find a good professional interventionist. Before I was retired, I used to do interventions, and about 80% of them were successful, but it wasn't easy and it didn't make me much money.
Today, many interventionist charge around $3,000 plus expenses for an intervention. I personally fell that this is too much, but if it is guaranteed successful, then it may be a fair exchange.
If you need an intervention for alcohol or drug addiction, it would be best to call our Helpline, 877-888-4802 and ask to speak to Mac...that's me. I will assess your situation and give you the do's and don't's that make or break interventions and you can see if you have enough confront to do this within your family. If I don't think it is going to go well, I can refer you to interventionist that are the best in their field and they will be able to get your loved one into treatment
I could explain the basics on this page, but I have found that interventions are not "cookie cutters" that you can apply to any family or any addict or alcoholic. To really get the idea of what you need to do, we will need to spend almost an hour on the phone gathering data and helping you understand the intricacies of this process.
If you are thinking about doing an intervention, then please call and let discuss your options.
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