When someone you love is struggling with addiction, it can be difficult to know how to help them recover. You may not have a lot of success as you reach out to help and provide them with resources. There may be other times they refuse to listen to you or don’t take your concerns seriously. Drug interventions are often necessary and can allow your loved one to understand the severity of the situation. When you team up with other people in their life, it can be a more successful conversation. Here are a few ways you can set up a successful drug intervention and attempt to help your family member or friend take the next step toward overcoming substance abuse.
Form the Right Team
Think intentionally about the people you want to include in the intervention team to ensure your loved one is surrounded by individuals they trust. Make a list of people they’ll listen to and who they respect to ensure they take the intervention seriously. The team can also include a professional interventionist who can act as a mediator and offer their expertise. This will allow you to have a middle man that is unbiased and brings clarity to the family members and the individual who is struggling with addiction. Avoid including anyone who is judgmental, harsh, or is also struggling with their own substance abuse.
Write Impact Statements
Impact statements are an important part of drug interventions because they can allow each person to prepare what they want to say. When writing impact statements, remain honest without coming off as accusatory, which can cause the individual to become defensive. Discuss how their addiction has had a personal impact on you and the relationship that you share, whether it’s caused you to be hurt by their lies or has made it hard to trust them. Written statements are effective in helping the individual understand that their addiction isn’t only affecting them but other people in their life.
Focus on offering love and support while writing the statements, which can make the individual more receptive and open to what is being communicated. There shouldn’t be any space for personal attacks, which will not make your loved one willing to seek help and start the recovery process. Personal attacks can cause the intervention to end prematurely and can cause the individual to break off ties with their loved ones in the room.
Manage Your Expectations
It can be difficult to know what expectations to have while planning a drug intervention. Although it’s important to be hopeful and positive, it can be difficult to predict how the intervention will go and if the individual is receptive. Keep in mind that there’s a chance the intervention can go poorly and may not have any impact or effect on your loved one. Even if the drug intervention doesn’t go as planned, it can still influence the individual to seek help in the near future. Consider it to be a seed that is planted. Ultimately, you can communicate your feelings and wishes, but the individual is the only one that can choose to overcome their addiction.
Offer Help
While preparing for the intervention, research different treatment facilities that are available in the local area. Collect information to determine which programs your loved one can enroll in to ensure they can get the help they need. If they’re receptive to the drug intervention, you can have a list of resources available to ensure they can immediately take action.
Consider both inpatient and outpatient programs that are available. Look into the success rates of each program and the treatment methods that are used. It’s also necessary to research the timeframe of each program and if they can be modified based on each patient’s situation. You can also connect your loved one with an addiction therapist or counselor in the local area. Look for a professional that can start meeting with the individual regularly to help them recover from addiction and understand the cause of the substance abuse to break the cycle. You can reach out to us today by calling 855-334-6120 and have access to our treatment specialists.
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