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Interventions Initiate Recovery; It Takes Diligence To Complete It

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Sometimes interventions don’t go the way we initially envision. What with all the visual aids on TV regarding how they’re done, how they look and the reactions they incite, our minds are generally inhabited by a vision of the event before it happens. So, naturally, when the time, place and reactions are a bit different than expected, we feel it’s ‘gone wrong’ and didn’t work.

The most important thing to remember about interventions is to not expect immediacy. Chances are the intervention will not suddenly make the intervened see the light, become sober and turn back into the person you once knew and loved. Interventions are done to establish boundaries rather than incite immediate actions. The person will likely have to acclimate to the new rules and ways by which he or she has chosen to live without treatment, continuing in the self-destruction completely on one’s own.

Most times this proves impossible and he or she accepts help, beginning the real process. A prime example of this kind of outcome for an intervention had a family come together hoping to finally help Susie – a daughter, sister and friend – recover from her now crippling addiction to crack cocaine.

As the family assembled the interventionist reiterated how the event would go – the family members had each prepared something to say explaining how they care for her, how the drug addiction was affecting both her and the family around her and the means by which they would free themselves of helping her sustain this disease. After the ground plans were understood everyone headed over to Susie’s apartment.

Refusing to come out from behind her chained door the family managed to coax her out onto her balcony – an intervention under circumstances unforeseen. After relaying their good memories of the girl lost behind the crack-induced facade, how her addiction had consumed their lives with fear, concern, sadness and debt, and telling her calmly they would no longer support her in any way other than assisting her in receipt of recovery, Susie walked back inside her apartment, leaving a stunned and hopeless family behind.

While it may have seemed to the family a completely wasted attempt, failed and fruitless, this intervention was a complete success. Results are rarely immediately observed, and by putting forth their new plan to regain their own lives they’d already won half the battle.

Addiction truly is a family disease, by helping those affected receive the counseling they need and regain their own life directions half the disease can be conquered. Additionally, without assistance from others rarely addicts manage to survive on their own and do eventually ask for the help offered, if only for a comfortable place to sleep, good food and a warm home.

In this case, Susie did call her family a week later, apologetic for her reaction at the intervention and requesting the help and support offered. Susie’s now been in recovery for nearly five years, went back to school and found the strength in both herself and her family to lead a healthy lifestyle.

The full, detailed story is laid out in more elaborate and eloquent terms in the AiR book It’s Not Okay to be a Cannibal: How to Keep Addiction from Eating Your Family Alive, written by AiR founder Andrew Wainwright and friend, Hazelden’s Robert Poznanovich.

Tags: drug abuse, drug addiction, drug intervention, drug treatment, drugs
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A new year, a new start.

Friday, January 8th, 2010

With a new year (and a new decade as well, depending on who you ask) upon us, we in the addiction world often see many people come to us with New Years resolutions, things such as:

“2010 will be the year I get sober.”

“Maybe I should cut down on my drinking.”

“This is the year I talk to my son about his drug use.”

“This is the year of big changes in my family.”

We at AiR encourage these resolutions- they can be a big catalyst for change, and help people get on the path to recovery. However, what’s important to remember here is how many times one has made these said resolutions. If you find yourself saying for the fifth year in a row that it’s time to quit drinking, it’s probably time to seek outside help. If you’re a family member and you’re hearing the same resolution year after year- we can help with that too.

Since the holiday season seems so volatile (as we’ve covered here), now is the time to act. A new year can bring about new changes. If you’re a family member and your loved one is hurting from a compulsive behavior, reach out. Ask for help. If you can’t make the phone call yet, then check out our book, It’s Not Okay To Be A Cannibal (available here); some good advice is available there, but be sure to get outside assistance when you decide to move forward.

If you or a loved one are in crisis, please call us at 877-320-0247 for immediate assistance, or visit us on the web at www.a-i-r.com.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, AiR Assistance in recovery, assistance in recovery, chemical dependency, drug addiction, drugs, eating disorders, gentetics of addiction, heroin addiction, intervention, mental health, methamphetamine, pain addiction, pain medication, prescription drug abuse, recovery assistance, Recovery Assistance Program, substance abuse, Treatment
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Heroin for Heroin Addicts?

Monday, September 28th, 2009

An interesting post in Time Magazine today touched on a new British trial, over the last four years, of providing free daily heroin injections as a method to wean them off the drugs. Since the results of the trial were positive (i.e. lower street drug use, lower crime rate among participates, etc.), officials are talking about making this a permanent addition of state-funded heroin clinics for the drug addicts in the U.K.

A quote from John Strang, one of the researchers with the National Addiction Centre (who helped lead the project): “It’s a less than perfect treatment, but for entrenched addicts, it gives them the first steps toward getting their life together. Some make a virtually complete recovery, but others, we get them from a bad place to a less bad place.” According to the research, those treated with heroin had better results than those treated with methadone. However, Paul Hayes, head of the National Treatment Agency, stressed in the Guardian this month that the services would be available to only a “very small proportion” of the nearly 200,000 heroin addicts in treatment.

So, government, if this works so well, why is it only available to a very small population? Shouldn’t this be the course of treatment for everyone? Obviously not. By giving drug addicts more drugs, aren’t we simply condoning and encouraging their habit? Why not fund a comprehensive, state-funded detoxification program followed by residential treatment? And harm reduction, in the long run is, in the words of our CEO Andrew Wainwright, simply a “band-aid on a bullet wound.” With addiction being a disease, and a malady of the physical, social and spiritual, simply medicating the addict’s “need” for the drug will not create a long term solution. We need to be moving people into comprehensive treatment, not helping them sustain their addiction.

For more information on heroin addiction and getting your loved one help, please call us at 877-320-0247.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, air, AiR Assistance in recovery, alcoholism, andrew wainwright, assistance in recovery, chemical dependency, drugs, heroin, heroin addiction, intervention, legal heroin, Legalization of Drugs, mental health, substance abuse, Treatment
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Intervention through the years

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

A New York Times article brought up by AiR staff member Dave Kelly talks about different intervention approaches and how an intervention could have saved Michael Jackson. There were a couple of pretty good points in this article, namely around denial when dealing with addiction: “Denial is at the core of addiction, and breaking through it, many experts say, can require extreme measures, particularly with celebrities, who can procure an endless supply of drugs and are cocooned by people with an interest in keeping the star’s earnings flowing.” According to sources close to the Jackson family, there were multiple attempts made by Jackson’s family at an intervention. So the question remains- why aren’t Jackson’s employees, who held his family at bay, held liable for his death? They obviously knew of Jackson’s drug use; in fact, according to sources close to Jackson, they would often pick up his multiple prescriptions. Maybe we need to develop laws that, instead of forcing drug addicts into jail, create accountability for employers and employees who refuse to confront an addict.

Kurt Cobain, the former front man of Nirvana, is also mentioned in the article when talking about harm reduction- a controversial method of “managing” or cutting down ones drinking or using. Cobain apparently asked to do this around his heroin use, and was instead escorted to treatment, of his own choice. A doctor from Seattle talks about harm reduction and motivational interviewing as a method to help addicts “slow down” their using.

The problem with motivational interviewing- and harm reduction- is that by the time an intervention is needed to help a loved one, they are usually too far along to simply “slow down.” Harm reduction creates a pocket that allows addicts to make excuses when they slip up or go on a binge. Via intervention, we at Assistance In Recovery can create a healthy family system surrounding the addicted loved one, regardless of whether or not they choose to get help.

In the end, getting help for an addiction is a choice. But via intervention, we can make that choice easier for your loved one. Intervention, in the end, is the most caring thing you can do for a loved one- and one of the hardest. Make your choice.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, AiR Assistance in recovery, alcohol, assistance in recovery, cnn, drugs, intervention, michael jackson, michael jackson drug abuse, michael jackson intervention, pain killers, recovery assistance, substance abuse
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AiR is now on Facebook

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Assistance in Recovery just launched our new Facebook page. Become a fan today and stay updated on AiR news, services as well as alcohol, drugs, eating disorder, behavioral health and mental illness related news.

Tags: AiR Assistance in recovery, alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, facebook, mental illness
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