Intervention is an act of
love and compassion. It is a life saving mission, facilitated by skilled,
trained professionals. It is never an opportunity to shame, blame or attack.
Interventions are most successful when properly planned, participants prepared
and rehearsed with a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of an
intervention.
The first
Goal is to hold up a
mirror for the addicted person to look into and see how others are seeing them.
Addicted persons have blinders, impaired insight, great shame, faulty judgment,
resistance and denial.
A good definition of denial is: it is easy not to see that which we do not want
to believe. A qualified interventionist, who is also a credentialed and
educated professional, has the job to lead participants through these potential
land mines. The OBJECTIVE is to get the addicted person to seek treatment and
help. Hopefully, the addicted person will go to treatment immediately. What
ever happens, the seed will have been planted and often will bear fruit at a
latter date.
The second
Goal is to assist loved
ones, family members, friends or business associates find help for themselves.
Addiction is progressive and is always getting stronger or worse over any
period of time. It never just goes away! Loved ones learn to adapt to the
addiction and begin to live by dysfunctional rules such as not talking about
the problem, numbing their feelings and become distrustful. The OBJECTIVE for
the family is to break through their own denial and bring about an awareness of
how their lives are being affected. A trained, qualified addiction
interventionist will help concerned others see that their good intentions of
controlling, enabling, rescuing and their denial prolongs the addiction but
never stops or cures it.
With these
goals and objectives in
mind, one pertinent statement can be made: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FAILED
INTERVENTION!!!! There may not be the immediate results hoped for, but once the
addiction has been exposed and talked about, there can never be the degree of
denial that once existed. Once the addiction has been exposed, the addicted
person can never again practice the addiction with the same comfort or with
impunity. Concerned others learn that their recovery is not dependent on the
addicted person. In recovery, everyone can get back his or her right of choice.
Please contact us at 909-218-4324 or www.info@familyintervention.org for for questions or more information on interventions.