Intervention FAQ

Your loved one doesn’t need to agree to the intervention. In fact, it is common for them to be in denial, unaware of the extent of their addiction and the harm they are causing. It is crucial that the family move away from attempts to change their loved one’s behavior. Instead, they can begin focusing on what changes can improve the environment they live in and encourage the addicted person to take responsibility for their addiction. These changes can take place without your loved one asking for help. In fact, an intervention can provide the best environment to take the first steps towards your loved one engaging with specialist support. It can also help them gain empowerment to move beyond the addiction and the pain the addiction has caused.

While these feelings can be overwhelming at times, your loved one must realize that they are responsible for their addiction and no one else. It is vital that you seek advice and help from an addiction specialist. This person can also help manage your feelings of guilt by explaining the intricacies of addiction. If you delay seeking professional help, you may be further enabling your loved one’s addiction. It can also prolong harmful behavior to your loved one, you, and your family.

Addiction is a psychological condition that requires treatment with the same urgency as a physical disease such as cancer. While it might feel like your responsibility to help cure the condition, it is necessary that you seek help from addiction specialists, such as Southworth Associates. If left untreated, your loved one may find themselves incarcerated, hospitalized, or in the worst case, dead.

The addicted person’s family will usually feel a great degree of pain and responsibility that the addicted person may not experience while they are in active addiction. For this reason, the interventionist will take the time to explain the intervention process and the complex nature of addiction. Furthermore, the interventionist will seek to highlight any potential dysfunctional aspects of the family dynamic. These factors may be contributing to the addicted person’s continued substance misuse. They’ll also discuss how you and your family can change these behaviors. 

The addicted person may be aware of the damage their behavior causes while feeling powerless to their addiction. However, family members usually find the process of realization of their harmful, enabling behaviors distressing. The interventionist will provide emotional support to help ease feelings of guilt.

It can be hugely daunting to organize an intervention, especially if previous confrontations have not been successful and even caused worse behavior. However, with the help of an experienced, skilled professional, there is a chance that an intervention will make a difference. You may believe you can support your loved one alone, or that they can fight the addiction themselves. However, in doing so, you create the potential risk for the addiction to progress and worsen, with possibly devastating consequences. The possible outcomes of delaying support will be far worse than the risks of a failed attempt. Southworth Associates are here to support you through the process.

Those close to the addicted person will be affected by, and in turn, affect the loved one’s addiction. Partners will usually be too enmeshed in the addiction to seek help. However, the addicted person’s parents typically demonstrate enabling behaviors, such as providing money, emotional, and practical support. These actions prevent the individual from facing their condition and requiring them to begin the process of change.

Sometimes, the father of the addicted person is a key figure in facilitating engagement with specialist services.

Alcohol addiction can have the same devastating effects as addictions to drugs. Despite alcohol being socially acceptable and legally accessible, alcohol addiction can escalate quickly and become a severe condition. It can be particularly challenging for an alcoholic to recognize that they need help and cut through their denial. For this reason, an intervention is vital to their recovery.

It is necessary to establish and maintain clear, understandable boundaries. With these in place, it sets in stone what is and is not acceptable behavior. When a person breaks these boundaries, it is easier to communicate the consequences of this to the addicted person. Furthermore, providing a place to live for your loved one, as well as money and transportation, can enable their addiction further. That may leave your family vulnerable to manipulation and disappointment. Interventions with Southworth Associates can help provide advice and assistance in establishing these boundaries and explaining the consequences of demonstrating enabling behavior. We are here to help you overcome feelings of guilt, shame, and responsibility and move towards a better future.

Addiction is often found concurrently with psychological conditions, which results in the situation being difficult to navigate and understand. Drug and alcohol abuse alters cognitive functioning over time. Therefore an addicted person will dedicate all their efforts to feed their addiction to satisfy their cravings. This condition leaves things that used to be important, such as educational or professional commitments, relationships, and hobbies as secondary concerns. This can be incredibly painful for those close to them. It requires professional help with an intervention specialist to begin the process of change.

We would strongly advise against your loved one having the choice for which treatment center they attend. They may choose a center that will allow them to continue to avoid addressing the underlying causes of their addiction due to their lower liability levels. Those centers that are easier to complete are often those that result in a higher risk of relapse.

Your loved one is still in active addiction, so they will choose the path of least resistance to maintain their addiction and avoid taking responsibility. In our experience, engagement with addiction specialists requires the addicted person to feel challenged to come to terms with their addiction, away from their support network.

Our services include advice and information on the benefits and possible drawbacks around which treatment centers to choose. We can also help you determine which programs are covered by your insurance.

There is a wide range of treatment options available, all of which we can discuss with you to make sure we choose the one best suited to you and your loved one.

To enable an addicted person is to allow harmful and destructive behavior to continue. The loved ones typically feel guilt, hope, fear, and victimization, which allow the addict to manipulate them. Enabling behavior can take the form of financial support, perhaps by supplying them with money, which they may claim is for other things like food, accommodation, or education. Furthermore, providing emotional support to an addicted person without confronting them around their substance misuse can be perpetuating their addiction. Recovery can only begin once the addicted person does not have this support network. Then, they must address the damage they are causing to themselves and their loved ones. 

Denial is a powerful tool that addicted people rely upon. It prevents them from facing the damage they are causing those they love. For this reason, they will avoid taking responsibility and instead attempt to place the blame on other people, particularly those closest to them. It’s critical to establish and maintain boundaries to protect yourself from repeated emotional harm. Doing so also helps encourage your loved one to address the negative consequences that their behavior has caused.

While some people consider addiction a signifier of immorality, addiction is a disease and requires treatment. While some addicts demonstrate immoral behavior as a result of their addiction, this is not a precursor to addiction. In fact, the individual will usually behave differently when they are not under the influence. The addicted person must receive specialized support in order to begin the recovery process.

Some people believe that some substances are more dangerous than others. However, legal substances, such as prescription medication and alcohol, can have the same devastating effects as illicit substance addiction. Interventions will focus on the relationship between the individual and the substance they abuse. Addictions can develop and escalate rapidly; for this reason, we advise you to contact us as soon as signs of addiction become apparent.

Following the intervention, the addicted person will begin their treatment plan. The individual may object to the circumstances they suddenly find themselves in. Therefore, it is important that our skilled professional assists them.

The addicted person must complete their treatment program. As such, they should not return home until their situation has improved, and further treatment is unnecessary. Although it may be painful being apart from your loved one, allowing them to return home before program completion demonstrates enabling behavior.

You should remove the child immediately from the situation to a safe place. The child may be suffering from psychological trauma as a result of the potentially dangerous environment. As a result, you should not delay your actions.