INTERVENTION
SUCCEED IN HELPING THE ADDICTED LOVED ONE WHO “DOES NOT WANT HELP”
BEFORE HITTING BOTTOM
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
Anais Nin
Despite your best intentions, endless hours of worry and trying to help, the living nightmare caused by chemical addiction or other self-harm continues.You're experiencing the most heartbreaking, frustrating, most difficult aspects of Alcoholism, Marijuana Addiction and Other Addiction problems - trying to help an addicted person admit their problem, seek treatment and begin the journey of recovery. You are not alone. The pandemic of addiction is presently touching more lives with greater destruction than virtually any other negative condition on earth, despite disinformation filling air waves and newspapers.Over the past 15 years, in the U.S., Australia and South Pacific Islands, Duprevent International, now called Deborah Dupre Associates for EcoPeace Internaitonal, has reached out to support people like you who care enough and have the courage to compassionately confront – before hitting bottom.People throughout the world have experienced joy and relief from Family and Company Interventions, the effective way to help addicted individuals learn how to see reality and begin to live a real life again - free from alcohol, marijuana, other drugs and related abuses to self and others. Most Interventionists report the process never fails.
Waiting until addicted individuals asks for help is cruel and inhumane. They suffer from a disease characterized by delusion and denial. Denial, a main characteristic of the disease, is one of the four quantifying diagnoses criteria with withdrawal and increased tolerance.
While there are rare exceptions, addicted individuals cannot see reality of their harming behaviour and cannot ask for help. If help is not provided before they ask, they probably never will become chemical free ad healthy. Waiting is too dangerous. There is help. There is hope. Structured Intervention works.
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Intervention: Frequently Asked Questions
May we live in peace without weeping.
May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing.
And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.
-- An Irish Blessing
Why an Intervention? Too many of us are experiencing deep pain and devastation as we stand and watch someone we love or care about as a friend or colleague destroy themselves with chemicals. Too often, mothers, spouses, other family members and employers hear that there is nothing they can do to help until the person who concerns them "hits bottom," admits their problem and asks for help. This is a dangerous myth!
Meanwhile, the addicted person spirals down with a progressive disease, continuing to harm self and others. This is no normal, healthy, humane or just. This condition is destroying families, communities, cities and nations while contributing to the second to most profitable industry in the world, the drug trade. This is chemical warfare. If you do not halt the associated violence of this condition in your home and family, probably nobody else will.
Who are Interventionists? Interventionists are professionals who conduct formal interventions to help families, friends and employers compassionately help the victim of Alcoholism, Other Addiction or Other Self-abuse break denial long enough to admit they need help and commit to a recovery program - Before Hitting Bottom - and before it is too late.
Why does it work? "Success of interventions lie in the power of participants’ courage to help and their learning new ways to express genuine compassion for the person with the disease and answering the cry for help," says Preventionist and Interventionist Deborah Dupre'.
How does it work? A group of about seven people with genuine concern for the Alcoholic, Other Drug Addict or other Addicted individual are selected with assistance and guided through the delicate process with an Interventionist. The process includes such steps as one or more participatory meetings with the group of select people who have the greatest influence on the alcoholic or other drug addicts life and homework including writing five statements about how the behavior of the victim has deep and personal negative effects because of the high degree of compassion felt for the victim. The group members are guided to express these statements in non-threatening, non-blaming manners. An example of explicit, non-blaming, loving statement a participant might say is, "I love you and that is why it hurts me so much to see you stay up all night drinking and using and being so sick in the mornings that you throw up like you did two days ago."
Dupre' asks each participant to prepare in writing five compassionate statements such as the example above, giving the most explicit examples of the painful behavior observed or known. Dupre' continually emphasizes love and sincerity throughout the intervention and in the expressions by the participants.
Aren't Interventions aggressive or cruel? "I have experienced an intervention in which a 'tough guy' approach was taken with such force and blame, the person with the disease suffered even more than before," says Dupre'. "Needless to say, this approach is destined for failure and further pain by all involved."
What usually happens as the result of an Intervention? The typical response of a well coordinated intervention is that for the first time the person with the problem recognizes the love others feel for her or him, humbly apologizes for hurting them, admits the addiction or other self-harm and contracts to commit to a recovery program. "I have rarely conducted an intervention that did not result in tears of joy and gratitude by everyone there," said Dupre'.
How long does an Intervention take? Most Interventions require part-time work from 3 weeks to 2 months to complete. Some Intervention processes take longer than others, depending on availability and readiness of the group. It is usually necessary for the Interventionist to spend time facilitating learning opportunities for everyone involved to ensure common understanding of the disease, learning needs of the victim including 'treatment' and follow-up care. The group only meets for the Intervention once with the client and the meeting lasts 1-1/2 hours. Follow up support by the group is important for the best results.
Learn More (Before Hitting Bottom)
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INTERVENTION
Have great faith that we can stop this if we stand up and say no,
but have absolute certainty that it will go ahead if we don't.
WHAT IS ADDICTION?
World Health Organization Definition of Alcoholism (and Other Drug Addiction)
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) and most national, major medical organizations world-wide including the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association have officially pronounced Alcoholism as a disease and that what holds true for Alcoholism is also true for other drug addiction.
Simply stated, Alcoholism and Other Drug Addiction symptoms include inability to stop drinking or using drugs despite physical, mental, family, social, financial, legal or other consequences and inability to admit symptoms or consequences of the disease caused by it.
Note below in the diagnostic criteria for the disease of Addiction that Denial is a major criterion. Denial substitutes reality of the adverse effects of the condition and gradually increases severity of the condition. Addiction usually exists as a Dual Diagnosis, meaning it is accompanied by associated mental illness(es), commonly Depression and Anxiety Disorder in adults.
Based on the definition of the disease, Dupere' refers to the disease as "Alcoholism and Other Drug Addiction," a phrase increasingly used in Australia. This phraseology clarifies that alcohol is a drug and that the diseases of alcoholism and drug addiction have the same criteria for diagnosis.
The condition is a disease, and therefore not a moral weakness, a lack of willpower nor a ‘normal’ condition.
Alcoholics and other drug addicts will exhibit three of the criteria listed below in a twelve-month period:
- Show tolerance: find they have to drink (and/or use) more to get their desired effect from alcohol (and/or other drugs).
- Experience withdrawal symptoms when effects of alcohol (and/or other drugs) subside.
- Drink (and/or use) larger amounts over a longer period than intended.
- Consistently fail to cut down or control drinking (and/or using).
- Give up important work or personal activities in favour of drinking (and/or using).
- Spend much personal time getting alcohol (and/or drugs), drinking (and/or using) and recovering from its effects.
Denial: Continue to drink (and/or use or self-abuse) despite knowledge of persistent physical or psychological problems caused or exacerbated by drinking (and/or using).
Before Hitting Bottom, Page 56-57
If you are still unsure about whether an intervention is needed, take the Intervention quiz.
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INTERVENTION
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed,
revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at
the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one
for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.
Audrey Hepburn
AVOID MAKING THESE MISTAKES
1. Avoid thinking that intervention will not work for your loved one. It may be hard to believe, but your loved one is not "a worse case" than others needing treatment. Read about intervention before deciding that it is not usable in your case!
2. Avoid procrastinating! Waiting is a guarantee that one year from now, you will look back and have even more regrets than you already do ("could have... would have... should have..."). By then, it may be too late to help your loved one!
3. Avoid showing anger or despair before, during or after the intervention. Remember, your loved one needs to voluntarily seek help. That can only be achieved through a positive, compassionate confrontation.
“Before Hitting Bottom Compassion for the Addict Down Under” by Deborah Dupre'
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