Many addicts become self-created experts and denying the seriousness of their situation, regardless of how devastating the consequences of their addiction may be to themselves or to those who love and care about them. Many addicts mistakenly believe that they do not have a problem. Addicts will often lie about their drug abuse to their friends, family members, co-workers and peers, and will even lie to themselves and accept the fact that their drug use is damaging both to themselves and to those that care about them. Denial is often one of the most difficult hurdles for an addict to clear so that they can receive help and treatment to defeat their addiction; drug addict intervention is a process that is often necessary to help the drug addict realize that they really do have a problem and that they must get help and treatment for this issue. Intervention can be decided upon by a group of friends and relatives, or can even be the result of judicial action and involvement of law enforcement. Sometimes, intervention can involve the addicts themselves in the planning stage. The goal of intervention is always to get the addict to realize that they have a problem that they are powerless to control, and that they must get help to stop using drugs or other harmful and destructive addictive substances or habits. Many times intervention for drug addicts is not as simple as the dramatized accounts that many viewers may watch on TV or over the Internet about drug intervention. While there are some stages that many interventions have in common, usually only a trained interventionist or addiction counselor will have the training and skills that are necessary to develop a plan to confront the addict about their addiction successfully. Interventionists normally do some background research on the drug addict before conducting the intervention, and will try to find out as much as they can about the addict’s history from their friends and family members. Interventionists use many different strategies during the intervention process to help break through the addict’s denial and get them to accept the reality of their situation. One common tactic is the use of letters written by family members and friends of the addict, who will meet with the addict and interventionist and read their letter to the addict in the hopes that hearing how their drug use is affecting someone that they care about will encourage the addict to enter detox and receive additional treatment for addiction. The interventionist usually will rehearse the plan of the intervention with family members and friends several times before the actual intervention takes place. Once the intervention occurs, it is important for the family and friends of the addict to follow the instructions of the interventionist and remain committed to the goal of getting the addict to seek treatment for their addiction. Many addicts do not react pleasantly to the intervention. Should conflict occur, the family and the friends of the addict must allow the interventionist to handle any conflicts that arise so that the intervention has the highest chance of being successful. Drug addict intervention can really help save the life of an addict when it is successful in its efforts to get the addict to enroll in a drug addiction treatment program.
