Some people may be tempted to yell at the alcoholic or insult him or her for his or her choices or behaviors. While honesty is encouraged, negativity aimed at the person can be counterproductive. People should speak for themselves and the problems they experience. For example, an alcoholic’s husband could talk about how worried he gets late at night when he’s not sure if his wife is still at the bar or if she was hurt on the way home. It can be difficult to know how to do an intervention with a family member who is struggling with alcohol use.
On average, about 90 percent of loved ones struggling with an AUD will commit to getting treatment after an intervention. Call now to connect with a treatment provider and start your recovery journey. Treatment can be done via an outpatient or inpatient program and may be a combination of both. Many inpatient programs accommodate their patients with 24/7 medical oversight and provide access to on-call medical and psychiatric services during their stay. Outpatient treatment usually meets several times per week for several hours per day.
Move Forward Together With Zinnia Health
An alcohol intervention specialist can be invaluable to anyone interested in staging an intervention with a loved one who is an alcoholic. These professionals include licensed counselors and psychotherapists and can help loved ones better understand addiction and plan the intervention. For serious alcohol use disorder, you may need a stay at a residential treatment facility. Most residential treatment programs include individual and group therapy, support groups, educational lectures, family involvement, and activity therapy. If the subject of the intervention knows they have support as they enter medical detox and a comprehensive rehabilitation program, they are more likely to agree to treatment. Sometimes people in this stage do show up for addiction treatment, but it’s not by their own volition.
- Before staging an alcohol intervention with your loved one, be sure to think about what you will say and who will be involved.
- While it’s up to the person to willingly start their sobriety journey, you can also help.
- Standing by your friend or family member’s progress during and after treatment is important, too.
- The person does not have prior knowledge of the meeting in the Johnson Model.
- In most cases, preparations for an intervention should be made quietly and privately so the person with alcoholism does not know about it ahead of time.
Through personalized treatment plans, evidence-based therapies, and a supportive environment, AspenRidge empowers individuals to reclaim their lives from alcoholism. Before you do anything, it’s important to know whether your friend or loved one has an alcohol addiction. Alcohol use disorder, or alcoholism, is more than just drinking too much from time to time.
Professional Guidance and Support: Do You Need an Interventionist?
Whether intervention just by family members and friends would suffice or a professional needs to be called in depends on the peculiarities of a given situation. It is hard to see an alcoholic loved one go down the path of doom and destruction. It is natural for you to want to prevent how to do an intervention for an alcoholic a life being lost, talent being wasted, and bridges being burned. This CME/CE credit opportunity is jointly provided by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and NIAAA. More resources for a variety of healthcare professionals can be found in the Additional Links for Patient Care.
Once people in the contemplation stage shift away from just thinking about their alcohol problem and begin focusing on a solution, they’ll move toward stage three of recovery. Contemplation can be an uncomfortable process, and feelings of guilt, shame, hopelessness and desperation are common as people reach this crossroads in their addiction journey. Doing a cost-benefit analysis to weigh the benefits of alcohol use against the cons and costs can sometimes help a person find clarity at this stage. Others in the precontemplation stage may feel hopeless and helpless about their situation or overwhelmed by the energy required to make a change. Alcoholics may even lie and blame others, rather than their addiction, for their problems.
