Do you have a family member or close friend who has been using drugs and who is suffering as a result? You might be considering staging an intervention. This can be an effective way of getting a loved one into treatment and drug rehab. However, you need to go about it in the right way. Here are some tips to help ensure a successful drug intervention.
Make the end goal professional treatment.
Treating drug abuse is not easy. Therapists and other medical professionals study and practice for years in order to be effective at offering this care. So, you're unlikely to be successful if your intervention plan is to help or counsel your loved one on your own. Instead, your end goal needs to be to get them into professional care. You can stage an intervention, and through that process, insist that your loved one enter rehab or begin therapy for drug abuse. In other words, the entire intervention is not centered around caring for your loved one, but rather getting them to a place where a qualified person can care for them.
Stay united.
Everyone close to this loved one needs to be on the same page and form a unified front. If you have one or two family members taking the drug user's side and disagreeing with the rest of you, this will undermine your intervention efforts. If there are family members or friends you feel may not take your side and help, leave them out of the intervention; don't bring them along and risk them giving in.
Choose a low-key setting.
Think carefully about where you plan on confronting your loved one and intervening. You want to do this somewhere quiet, where there won't be any public eyes on you. Staging the intervention in your loved one's home is a good choice. You could also do it in the home of a friend or family member. Sometimes, inviting your drug-using loved ones over and having them walk into the intervention is a good approach.
Rehearse beforehand.
Before you hold the intervention, gather everyone involved, and rehearse what you'll all say and do. This way, things will go more smoothly when your drug-using loved one does arrive. You're more likely to say the right things, even if you're a bit nervous.
With the tips above, you can stage a successful drug intervention. Remember, the end goal is to get your loved one into therapeutic care.
Share1 March 2022
I suffered depression for much of my life, and I lived with it for years before seeking help. I visited a psychiatrist and received an antidepressant prescription along with a referral to a counselor. I filled my prescription, but I put off making an appointment with the counselor. The medication began to help, so I decided that I didn't need to see a counselor after all -- or so I thought at the time. After a couple of months of medication, a close friend of mine died of an illness. I then learned that even though the medication helped my depression, I still had not learned the coping skills I needed to deal with traumatic life experiences. That even motivated me to seek counseling, and it helped me immensely. I created this blog to remind others that medication can help when suffering with depression, but counseling is also extremely important.