By the time you start considering an intervention for a friend or loved one, things are probably pretty bad. Her addiction is no longer a secret and it affects her friends and family. It may have been affecting them for a while. At this point, you have probably already expressed your concerns to your loved one and tried to encourage her to quit or get help to quit. You may have already withdrawn financial support or stopped other behaviors that might have enabled her addiction. Often, interventions are a last ditch effort by families who don’t know what else to do. Do interventions actually work? Most people are somewhat familiar with what an intervention entails, possibly watching from the long-running TV show, Intervention. In an intervention, several family members or close friends confront their addicted loved one, reading pre-written statements about how their loved one’s addiction has affected her and others. After everyone has spoken, they ask the person to enter treatment. When done correctly, interventions appear to work pretty well for getting someone to enter treatment. The National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence estimates that well executed interventions are successful more than 90 percent of the time. A well executed intervention is led by an experienced intervention counselor. The counselor helps coordinate the participants and creates a plan for the intervention. She makes sure the statements strike the right tone, focusing on objective ways in which addiction has harmed the family. She keeps the intervention on track, making sure the intervention doesn’t turn confrontational and counterproductive. It’s also important to be ready for the possibility of success. You should already have a spot booked at a quality treatment center and have a bag packed so you can send your loved one off right away if she consents to treatment. A quality intervention leads to treatment more than 90 percent of the time, but does that treatment lead to recovery? It often does. Keep in mind that relapse rates in general are pretty high. Depending on the drug and the length of use, relapse rates in the first year are somewhere between 40 and 60 percent. However, people who entered treatment as a result of intervention don’t appear to do worse than people anyone else. In fact, if the family is supportive enough to organize an intervention and participate in treatment, their chances are slightly better. Also, the consequences the family set out during the intervention of not participating in treatment may encourage her to keep participating even if she doesn’t really want to. Many people are ambivalent about entering treatment, but then discover their internal motivation along the way. What is clear is that interventions get many people into treatment who would probably not have otherwise considered it. An intervention certainly doesn’t lead to a stable recovery in all cases, but it can significantly increase the chances.
If you’re struggling with substance use, Recovery Ways can help. We offer intensive outpatient treatment as well as residential treatment. Recovery Ways is a premier drug and alcohol addiction treatment facility located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our mission is to provide the most cost-effective, accessible substance abuse treatment to as many people as possible. Request information online or call us today at 1-888-986-7848.
