Help for Drug & Alcohol Abuse
What is an Intervention?
Intervention is a term that is often misunderstood or has negative connotations to it. Often people think of an intervention as an intrusive practice or that it makes someone a "meddler" in someone else's life.
This is far from the truth and far from our intentions. It is true that an intervention should be approached with care and preparation, and it is not universally advised in every situation where there is cause for concern. However, if an intervention is conducted by competent professionals in an environment grounded in safety and compassion, the process can be a caring and effective resource to curb destructive patterns and to mend lives and families.
Dr. Vernon E. Johnson, D.D. of the Johnson Institute states, "Intervention is a process by which the harmful, progressive, and destructive effects of chemical dependency are interrupted and the chemically dependent person is helped to stop using mood altering chemicals and to develop new, healthier ways of coping with his or her needs and problems. It implies that the person need not be an emotional or physical wreck (or "hit bottom") before such help can be given."
There is a shorter, simpler way to define intervention: presenting reality to a person out of touch with it in a receivable way. We have explored the various defenses with which the chemically dependent person shields himself or herself from the painful and debilitating reality of his or her disease and its effects. The goal of the intervention is to break down those defenses so that reality can shine through long enough for the person to accept it.
- By "presenting reality" we mean presenting specific facts about the person's behavior and the things that have happened because of it. "A receivable way" is one that the person cannot resist because it is objective, unequivocal, nonjudgmental, and caring.
- An intervention is a confrontation, but it differs in some very important respects from the sort of confrontation with which most people are familiar - and which have little or no positive effect.
- In an intervention, confrontation means compelling the person to face the facts about his or her chemical dependency. It is not a punishment. It is not an opportunity for the others to clobber him or her verbally. It is an attack upon the victim's wall of defenses, not upon the victim as a person.
Similarly, an intervention is an act of empathy rather than sympathy. You agree to take part in it out of the deep concern you feel for the chemically dependent person. You stop caring for the alcoholic or drug addict - and start proving how very much you care about him or her.
For the chemically dependent person, the intervention is the "moment of truth." He or she experiences it as a crisis, a discrete event. In fact, it takes days, even weeks, of advance preparation. The better prepared you are, the more smoothly the intervention will go. The only "surprises" during the process should be those the victim experiences when finally met head-on with the realities of his or her disease.
