Watching your loved one struggle with addiction is heartbreaking. You may find yourself spending countless nights lying awake, wondering if your loved one is safe. Unfortunately, addiction is a difficult disease to recover from. Denial and the idea that sobriety is impossible are extremely common feelings among individuals with substance use disorder. Because of this, you and your family may wonder how you can help your addicted loved one.
Thankfully, addiction interventions were created for individuals who suffer from addiction and have a difficult time accepting help. An intervention is a planned event that involves collaboration between an intervention specialist. The goal of an intervention is to convince your addicted loved one that they desperately need professional substance abuse treatment.
The best way to ensure an effective intervention is to hire a professional to help guide you through the process. There are many ways an addiction interventionist can help your addicted loved one.
What is an Addiction Interventionist?
Addiction interventionists collaborate with the family members of an addict to facilitate an intervention. While every intervention specialist works with the primary goal of getting the addict to accept treatment, there are other services these individuals provide.
Addiction intervention specialists understand that some individuals are not prepared to accept help. They prioritize providing healing to your entire family, regardless of the intervention’s outcome.
The job of an addiction interventionist may include:
- Assessing each of your family member’s behaviors, roles, and willingness to participate in staging an intervention
- Consulting with your family about their goals for the intervention
- Providing your family with guidelines and assisting them with writing letters to the addict
- Creating a treatment plan for the addict
- Helping your family understand addiction and your loved one’s specific behaviors
- Facilitating the actual intervention and guiding the discussions to maintain positive morale
- Helping your loved one choose the right rehab center
- Beginning the admissions process at a nearby rehab facility
- Continued support after the intervention whether your addicted loved one enters treatment or refuses
3 Ways an Intervention Specialist Will Help Your Loved One
While you might be considering hosting an intervention for your addicted loved one on your own, this is not recommended. Without the assistance of a professional intervention specialist, many things could go wrong.
It’s important to have an unbiased professional facilitating the conversation during the intervention. Otherwise, the conversations will likely become heated, causing the addict to become defensive, combative, or unwilling to continue.
Here are three important ways an addiction interventionist can help your addicted loved one become willing to accept the help they desperately need.
1. Educating You and Your Family on Addiction
One of the most important roles of an intervention specialist is providing you and your family with education on addiction and how it affects your loved one’s behavior.
It is extremely common for individuals struggling with addiction to display a complete shift in personality. This is most likely very confusing for you and the other members of your family. It might even cause tension and resentment towards your addicted loved one. While these feelings are normal, you and your family members need to understand why your loved one is behaving abnormally.
By understanding the science behind addiction and what it does to an individual’s brain, you and your family can gain compassion for your addicted loved one. While their behaviors might be toxic and require strict boundaries, having empathy for their struggles will help you to provide them with the help they need. Instead of becoming angry when they behave poorly, you will be able to correct their behaviors in a loving and caring manner.
2. Making Plans for Addiction Treatment Placement
When someone is struggling with addiction, it is common for them to find daily tasks and responsibilities extremely difficult. Considering this, finding a reputable addiction treatment program to attend might feel impossible to them. You and your family members might also have a difficult time finding and planning an addiction treatment program for your addicted loved one to attend. Thankfully, addiction interventionists are experts in addiction treatment placement.
When you decide to work with an addiction intervention specialist, one of their roles will be planning and choreographing your addicted loved one’s addiction treatment program. Intervention specialists plan for your loved one’s addiction treatment placement to begin immediately after the intervention is completed. This prevents your addicted loved one from having any opportunities to change their mind about attending rehab.
3. Utilizing Crisis Intervention Skills If Needed
Oftentimes, individuals suffering from addiction also struggle with their mental health. If your loved one is in the midst of a mental health crisis, addiction intervention specialists are trained in crisis intervention techniques.
Interventionists are skilled in helping addicted individuals calm down if they are experiencing an episode. Whether your addicted loved one has severe anxiety about treatment or feels like they are being attacked for their substance abuse, a professional interventionist has the tools needed to avert an emotional crisis.
Get in Touch With an Addiction Intervention Specialist Today
Do you find yourself lying awake at night, wondering if your loved one is alive and safe? Are you constantly in fear for your loved ones because of their struggles with addiction? If this sounds familiar, you should consider contacting an addiction intervention specialist. Palm City Wellness can help you get in touch with a highly experienced intervention specialist and coordinate effective treatment for your loved one.
Contact us for more information on how to get started.