Simply put, an addiction intervention is the first step on the road to recovery. It doesn’t matter if the affected individual is the addict or if it is the family of the addict. Addiction intervention seeks to help everyone concerned.

But what is an addiction intervention, specifically? Who performs the intervention and what happens? Let’s take the mystery out of it. In the formal sense, an addiction intervention is a process where a trained and certified interventionist is called in to help concerned family members and friends convince their loved one with addition to accept help and go into treatment. Beyond that, addiction intervention often works to help family members understand the disease of addiction, give them tools to help them get rid of shame and guilt and regain or rebuild self-confidence.  There are different models of addiction intervention, but the most typical goes something like this:

• You make a call to the organization offering addiction intervention services. Then you are put in touch with a licensed interventionist, a professional who helps you determine if an addiction intervention is the right course of action at this time.

• Preparations begin to get family members/close friends ready for the intervention. These include providing clear direction and instructions for the parties who will be present and involved in the intervention, keeping the family’s personal circumstances in mind, initiating contact with treatment facilities, and communicating throughout the process.

• Family members next meet with the interventionist in a “pre-meeting” where you obtain more information about the disease of addiction that’s affected your family, how to end the cycle of destruction addiction has caused, that the individual addict’s actions are not the fault of anyone, how to create healthy boundaries, and agree on the options to be presented to the addict during the formal intervention. In addition, the date, time, and location for the formal intervention is set.

• During the formal intervention, each family member, close friend, coworker, boss or other concerned individual, addresses the addict and says how that individual’s destructive behavior affects him or her personally. Each declaration, which may be read from a sheet they’ve prepared in advance, usually ends with a plea for the addict to accept help and go into treatment. After everyone has shared, the interventionist explains the options available to the addict and, when the addict agrees to accept treatment, the interventionist facilitates entrance to the treatment facility.

Why can’t family members do their own intervention? In some instances, perhaps they can, but it is extremely difficult and prone to failure. Why is that? Addicts often find it hard to accept that they have a problem they cannot control. They are experts in denial. Even if others think they have a problem, addicts may feel that they have adopted a lifestyle that perfectly suits them and one that they don’t want to change. This isn’t the person talking, it’s the disease. Once they’ve become dependent on alcohol or drugs or compulsive behaviors, they’re no longer in control. No amount of family coercion or persuasion is likely to break through the barriers of denial and lack of understanding of the addict’s disease. That’s why formal intervention, conducted by professionals, is so important. It’s backed by solid research that interventions can offer the best chance for an addict to get help and be on the road to recovery.

Is an addiction intervention right for you and your family to consider at this time? Ask yourself the following question: Has everything else you’ve tried failed? You could go through years of threats, promises, and cycles of letting things slide followed by active attempts to get your loved one into treatment. Nothing works, or it works only for a short period of time before the addict resumes his or her self-destructive behavior – perhaps even worse. Now is the time for an addiction intervention.

The important point to remember about interventions is that they don’t have to be voluntary to be effective. Chances are the loved one does not know that an intervention has been scheduled and shows up to a meeting completely clueless. He or she will adamantly deny there’s a problem, right up to the final minute where they agree to go into treatment. Does everyone go into treatment? Unfortunately, there are some who refuse the assistance. They will not be convinced and do not accept the help they are being offered. This does not mean that they won’t do so later, or that the intervention has been a complete failure. Sometimes it takes a while for the awareness of the problem to really hit home.

If nothing else, addiction intervention helps family members realize that they don’t own the addict’s actions. They are not responsible for what the addict does. They can change their own behaviors and go on to live their lives, whether the addict continues to drink, do drugs, gamble, or engage in other compulsive behaviors. Family members learn they have to stop enabling the addict and allow him or her to face the consequences of their actions.

What Is an Addiction Intervention? is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Successful interventions include expressions of warmth, caring and concern for the affected person. They are best facilitated by trained professionals who support all participants and who structure the intervention so that concerns are addressed and unnecessary conflict is kept to a minimum. Most intervention specialists will work in advance with the concerned parties to prepare for the formal intervention itself. A successful intervention typically results in the chemically dependent person entering treatment.

There several types of intervention among these are the Johnson Model of Intervention and the Invitational Intervention. Both are recovery focused and both involve the use of a group process.

The Johnson Model is based upon the belief that chemical dependency impairs the substance user’s insight and judgment. Therefore, concerned members of an intervention will give the substance user details of how he or she is affected by substance use and how that substance use is also affecting the people who care for them. Such an intervention has also been called a “surprise intervention” because chemically dependent people for whom these types of interventions are arranged are typically not aware that others have been preparing to confront them.

The Johnson Model involves each participant talking directly to the chemically dependent person in order to describe concerns, impact and to pledge support throughout efforts to seek treatment and remain abstinent.

A second type of intervention is known as the Invitational Method. This type of intervention has several similarities to the Johnson model. It, too, typically uses professional guidance to prepare for and complete the intervention. It is also done in an effort to remedy chemical dependency and its effects upon the substance user and their loved ones. Additionally, the participants demonstrate their concern and support for the chemically dependent person. Significantly, however, the chemically dependent person is aware of the intervention before hand and is invited to participate.

The Invitational Intervention focuses more upon the addiction rather than the addicted individual. It addresses chemical dependency as a family disease. Family members other than the chemically dependent person may develop coping and treatment plans for themselves in such an intervention. The addicted family member is considered to be a participant in helping the entire family recover from the disease of addiction. While the chemically dependent person may enter treatment as a result of this intervention, this is not the primary goal of the intervention as it is in the Johnson model.

Intervention is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Is it time for an intervention?

According to Earl Hightower, an addiction interventionist who has done over 2,000 interventions over the past two decades, if you are thinking about an intervention, it is likely time for an intervention.

“This is not a question people typically ask themselves. If you are asking it, you know there is a problem. Usually by the time a person even considers intervention there is little doubt the addicted person is in real trouble,” says Hightower.

Typically, families allow an addicted person to continue their behavior for many years. The person may rack up DUIs, lose a job, or destroy a relationship before anyone acknowledges the problem. Why does this happen?

“Addicts are master manipulators,” explains Hightower. “They also know how to compartmentalize. They know how to act with each person in the family to enable their addiction. Most addicts and alcoholics know they have a problem – that’s not the obstacle – the obstacle is a willingness to get treatment.”

Some families may try to intervene on their own, but this is often not successful. The addict has become adept at playing people off each other and doing just enough to make it possible to continuing drinking or using drugs. By hiring a licensed, credentialed interventionist you benefit from the extremely important pre-intervention work that ensures the best possible chance of getting the addicted person into treatment.

According to Hightower, pre-intervention is the most critical part of the intervention process.

“An intervention is not an event,” he explains. “It is a process that includes pre-intervention work, the intervention itself, then post-intervention work.”

Not all interventionists are created equal – if you are considering hiring one, it’s important to look for someone who is credentialed and experienced.

“What you see on A&E Intervention has little relevance in the real world,” Hightower says. “You can’t watch a few episodes then know how to do an intervention.”

Even if an intervention successfully results in the person going to treatment, the next step is even more critical. This is where post-intervention work done by an experienced interventionist is essential.

Treatment is a bridge to recovery. Recovery is a completely different animal. In post-intervention work the interventionists should make sure the patient has all the elements in place to make continued recovery possible. Without that, the patient simply goes home, back to the same old routine; the odds are against them.

“If the interventionist thinks they’re done as soon as the patient enters treatment, they are not doing a complete intervention,” says Hightower.

Is there ever a case so dire than an intervention won’t help? Patricia Meyers, Clinical Director of Admissions at Promises Treatment Centers, doesn’t believe so. Meyers has worked with many of the top interventionists in the country who have helped people in the most extreme circumstances get into treatment.

“I’m the all-time optimist. I believe unless somebody is 6 feet under you don’t give up on them,” Meyers said.

If you are interested in hiring an interventionist, do your research and focus on those who are board-registered interventionists. These people with have the credentials “BRI-I” or “BRI-II” after their name. Also check if they are certified as drug and alcohol counselors (CADC) or have a psychology degree. You can also ask for references from past families they have helped.

Many of the top treatment centers work with the leading interventionists. You can call the treatment center and ask for a referral to an interventionist. They will ask for some information about the addicted person – behaviors, drugs of choice, and level of urgency – to make an appropriate referral to an intervention specialist.

Should You Hire an Addiction Intervention Specialist? is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

"I did," Jackson said. "Of course, that’s what you do. Those are the things that you do when you love someone. You can’t just let them continue on that way. And we did a few times. We weren’t very successful."

Lynn Redmond and Muriel Pearson write that Jackson said Michael understood that the family’s motives for the interventions were out of love.

"How do I say this? Understanding. I guess that will be the best way to—understood that it was out of love, because of caring. But when it’s something like that, people can tend to be in denial," she said.

When asked if her brother was in denial about his addiction, she replied, "Possibly."
"I wish he could answer this question for you and not me," she said. "I felt that he was in denial."

"You can’t make ‘em drink the water,” she continued. “I’m a true believer in prayer, a big believer in prayer—but it’s, it’s something that you can’t do for them. Something they have to do for themselves," she said.

Toxicology results have shown that Jackson had lethal amounts of propofol—a powerful sedative typically used in operating rooms—in his system when he died, along with a cocktail of other prescriptions. His death was ruled a homicide because his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, allegedly gave him dangerous amount of prescription narcotics.

Murray has admitted to administering propofol but has denied giving Jackson anything that should have killed him. Murray is still under investigation in Los Angeles. The district attorney’s office has yet to announce any charges against him in Jackson’s death, but on Monday, Murray appeared in court on charges that he owes more than $14,000 in child support.

Murray agreed to start making payments to avoid jail time but claimed he had to close his practice because of threats he received after Jackson died. Janet Jackson said she wants to see that Murray is never allowed to practice medicine again.

"He was the one that was administering," Jackson told Roberts. "I think he is responsible."

For Jackson, her interventions with Michael through the years echoed the trials of her first marriage to James DeBarge, who has admitted to being addicted to prescription medication.

"It kinda goes back to my first relationship, something that you have to want…it’s something they have to want," she said of her desire to rid both Michael and DeBarge of their addictions.

At 18, Jackson’s marriage to DeBarge, part of a family singing sensation billed as the next Jackson 5, was an act of rebellion. The two eloped without the approval of her parents.

"I wanted to be on my own and get out of the house," she said. "We were the kind of kids that—we—obeyed our parents, really obeyed our parents. If they said no, you don’t ask why. You just understand that it’s no."

But DeBarge’s struggle with addiction led to the end of the marriage within less than three months

"He was my first love and very much so," Jackson said. "And there was a lot going on in our relationship, a lot going on with him, I should say. And—just being so young and not really—not really knowing what life is really all about, just beginning to explore life and wanting to—help him, thinking I could change him, if I only could do this and that, and not realizing that it was something that he had to do and want for himself."

Their marriage was annulled and she did not find love again until she met Rene Elizondo Jr., a songwriter and one of her musical collaborators. The two were secretly married for eight years, but it ended with a painful divorce.

Music producer and record company executive Jermaine Dupri was the latest man in Jackson’s life. The couple dated on and off for seven years, producing two of her chart-topping albums together, but parted ways.

Jackson said she is single and focusing on her work—a new music video for her single, "Make Me," and a book entitled "True You," a personal story about her lifelong struggle with her weight.

"Just picking yourself apart all the time because you’re so used to being kind of picked apart," she said. "’Oh, your butt’s too big,’ and ‘you’ve got too much meat here,’ ‘got too much this there.’ …Well, now I know there’s nothing wrong with [my booty], thank you to Jermaine Dupri."

Five months after Michael’s death, Jackson said she has sought refuge in her work.
"I needed to get back to work. It helped me get through it," she said. "I was able to put a lot of my focus someplace else."
With the release of the documentary "This Is It," which shows Michael preparing for his sold-out summer concert tour, she has been bombarded by painful images of Michael.

"I haven’t seen [the film]. I definitely won’t, not right now. I don’t know if I will ever see it," she said. "…It’s hard when I see a poster, you know, the "This Is It" posters that are around the city. That’s tough. I’ve seen the commercial. They advertise—the trailers—on TV. That was tough."

If her brother were here, she told Roberts he would tell her to "stop and enjoy" life. "I think it would be to stop and enjoy. I think that would be it," she said.

It’s advice she may well heed during this time of shifting priorities and self-reflection.
"I’m in a different space. There’s a lot that’s gone on, a lot that makes you think, think about life. Something that I think we tend to—at times take for granted," she said. "I’d love to have a family."

Jackson recently released a CD called "Number Ones." She recorded the CD’s only new single "Make Me" after Michael’s death. "It’s classic—classic me," she said. "Dance, upbeat, lots of harmonies."

At 43, Jackson tells Roberts she’s finally come to embrace herself.

"[Forties are] great. You know why? You don’t care what people think. You really don’t. … You do your thing," she said. "You have no time for mess, no time for drama."

Jacksons Knew About Michael’s Addiction is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The problem is, many times people inadvertently make it easier to continue abusing drugs. The choices you make when dealing with an alcoholic or drug addict determine just how much pressure they feel to get any type of treatment.

No need to feel guilty about this. Addicts develop extremely effective methods of manipulating those around them so they can continue to abuse substances without too many consequences. If you are aware of the signs you are being manipulated, you are less likely to fall into the trap of enabling your loved one to continue to use and abuse substances.

Here are some of the classic methods of manipulation:

1. Divide and Conquer: Addicts are expert at compartmentalizing their lives. They quickly learn how much each person in the family will tolerate, and they are careful not to manipulate too much any family member who might catch on. They are selective in what they let different family members know. They know which one won’t lend money and which one will. They know which one will give them a bed to sleep in when the spouse kicks them out. They know who will intervene with the parents if they need to get bailed out of trouble once again. They also know who will keep their secrets.

2. Weakest Link: The addict will look for the weakest link in the family as their ally in addiction. They might do this by making the person feel sorry for them or by acting differently around them so that they protest when the rest of the family insists the person is in real trouble. Make sure you are not the weakest link.

3. Rage and Anger: If you feel afraid to confront your loved once because he might react with rage and anger, you just identified another classic manipulation method. The addict has figured out just how much anger will scare you off. If you are someone who doesn’t like confrontation, they will certainly figure this out and make sure any attempt to talk to them is met with the most unpleasant reaction. Their goal? Make sure you never attempt it again.

4. Empty Threats: Threats do not have to be in the form of violence – they might be threats of leaving and never coming back. They are usually dramatic statements, and most addicts are not in a position to follow through. “OK, I’ll move out and you won’t have to deal with my drinking anymore.” Good response? “I’d rather you choose to get help, but if you feel going out on your own is a better choice than getting help, let me know if you need any help packing.” Once you have called the addict on a threat (and you will often find it to have nothing backing it) they will not be as likely to try it again.

Refuse to Participate in the Addict’s Destruction

If you accommodate the addict, you are participating in their destruction. While it might seem like the right thing to do because they are sick, remember that the mind of the addict is totally focused on getting more drugs. If you make that possible, aren’t you ultimately contributing to their inevitable decline?

By not enabling destructive behavior, you are doing the most loving and supportive thing possible. This does not mean you abandon the person, just that you set new rules of engagement.

Seeking Professional Intervention Help

These new rules of engagement are best set with the help of a professional addiction intervention. Experts strong advise you NOT to try to do an intervention on your own – you are too entwined with the addict and have been manipulated for too long to be effective, and you might just make it worse. An addiction intervention means a neutral third-party works with the family, figures out if there are any weak links, and helps the family members reveal to each other the whole story. Remember, the addict has only given bits and pieces to you as this is part of divide and conquer.

According to Earl Hightower, an addiction intervention specialist who has done over 1,000 interventions over the past two decades, “Alcoholics and addicts have a great ability of reading people, and getting a great sense of what you’re comfortable with and what you’re not, what will manipulate you and what won’t. They get to know how to influence you so they can continue to drink or use with impunity without consequence. ‘You’ll know these things because that’s palatable for you, or creates empathy or compassion in you to allow me to do what I want, but this one over here I can charm; I gotta seduce this one; I’ve got to be more aggressive or assertive with this individual to get them to do what I want.’ The relationship an alcoholic or addict has with other people is all influenced dramatically by the illness that they suffer from; there’s absolutely no way it can be otherwise.”

It is critical that if you decide to do an intervention that you get all family members on the same page: no longer supporting the addiction; instead, supporting getting help for the addiction.

Jane Mintz, who specializes in crisis intervention, says, “There’s a very systematized way for me to get families to start to align. It’s all about alignment. These are fragmented people. Each person has a different experience with the affected individual. They have different opinions. Some may also be using. You’re taking a group of people that are fractured and then bringing them all together, maybe for the first time ever in a different way, so they can deliver the message of hope and help in one voice, effectively, using one voice.”

The most important thing to remember is that you can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution. To be part of the solution, you will need to step back and honestly examine your behavior in relation to the addicted person. That honest look will give you the ability to effectively approach the problem and become the support system for recovery rather than the support system for drug abuse.
 

Are You Making It Easier for Your Loved One to Abuse Drugs? is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

“The Cleaner” is back for a second season, with Benjamin Bratt starring as Banks. The character is based on the real life of Warren Boyd, who had nine DUI convictions and had already spent five years in prison at the age of 32. Addicted to alcohol and cocaine, Boyd had been in and out of 26 rehab programs without success. In 1990, his then-girlfriend Deedee gave birth to their child right before Boyd returned to prison. When his daughter was placed in his arms, he said he returned to his senses.

Boyd spent the next 15 months in prison, but began attending 12-step meetings and got clean. Upon his release from prison, he decided to devote his life to helping others break the cycle of addiction. But he knew that sometimes addiction intervention calls for drastic measures, so he assembled a team (all recovering addicts themselves) to help rescue addicts through physical intervention.

Boyd and Deedee are now married and have three children. Boyd runs private rehab centers and has also helped celebrities. He also serves as the co-executive producer of “The Cleaner,” which is inspired by his life.

In the second season opener of “The Cleaner,” Banks deals with TV anchorman Davis Durham (played by Gary Cole), whose wife has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Banks knows the couple from his using days, and must break Durham down to get him to admit to his relapse and face it. Whoopi Goldberg plays Durham’s sponsor, who was also once Banks’ sponsor.

David Hinckley of the New York Daily Times says that Bratt has made Banks one of the most interesting characters on TV. “He balances the action elements with an almost Zen-like acceptance of the way life works, and his short reflections tonight on human imperfection are the centerpiece of the show,” Hinckley writes.

“If we’re honest, (Banks) says, we all know our imperfections, and then we still get up each day and try to do the best we can. It sounds trite on paper. It’s smart stuff on the screen.”

He continues, “Based loosely on stories from Warren Boyd, a former ‘extreme interventionist’ in real life and now co-executive producer of this series, ‘The Cleaner’ doesn’t spend a lot of time ruminating on why Banks’ line of work has both fans and critics. Its primary mission is to create compelling television, and tonight, it gets that job done.”

“The Cleaner” airs on A&E on Tuesdays at 10/9 Central.

A&E’s “The Cleaner” Highlights Drug Intervention is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment