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How To Do an Intervention for an Alcoholic

If someone you love is struggling with alcoholism, you may feel pressured to come up with a way to help them and to do it quickly before they hurt themselves anymore than they already have. It's a fine line. Too much help and you're only enabling their disease. Too little help and they may not have enough power within to get the treatment they need. The best way to help an alcoholic is to set up an intervention in which you and other close friends and family sit down with your loved one and confront him or her with the reality of their situation. This is an organized event done with the hope of convincing your loved one to get treatment and not a judgmental or malicious attack.

The Canyon has a team of professional interventionists who can assist you with your alcoholic intervention. From the initial plans to mediating the event itself to escorting your loved one to The Canyon for alcohol treatment, we will be with you every step of the way.

Alcoholic Intervention for Alcohol Rehab: Timing

There's a debate about when it is the best time to stage an alcoholic intervention. Should you wait until your loved one has hit "rock bottom" or lost everything: job, home, spouse/partner, children, friends? Or do you help them before they destroy relationships permanently, scar their children emotionally and lose everything they've worked for?

At The Canyon, we believe that sooner rather than later is ideal. If someone you love is hurting him or herself and the people around them with alcoholic behavior, then they are in physical danger. They may die or kill someone else in a drunk driving accident or make some other fatal mistake that an early intervention may circumvent. An intervention gives your loved one the opportunity to same themselves before it's too late.

The Basic Framework of an Alcoholic Intervention

First, you need a plan. Choose who you will invite to this intervention and invite these people to a planning meeting so that you can choose basic details like date and time, location, who will speak, for how long and what they will say. You will also need to make detailed arrangements for your loved one should he or she choose the treatment you offer. You can work with a professional interventionist at The Canyon to help you not only with this reservation but the details of the intervention. This plan and initial meeting as well as the coming intervention should be kept from the alcoholic for optimal impact.

After the planning meeting and before the intervention, those who will speak should write a short letter to the alcoholic that defines specifically how they have been hurt by the alcoholic's behavior without being judgmental. During the intervention, people will take turns reading their letters so that the alcoholic can get a full picture of how devastating their behavior is. When the intervention is complete, the alcoholic will be faced with a decision: go into alcohol rehab immediately or suffer the consequences, such as divorce or losing his or her home or job.

Using a Professional for Your Alcoholic Intervention and Escort to Alcohol Rehab

If you are concerned that you are too emotionally close to the situation to productively organize and mediate the event, The Canyon can provide you with a professional interventionist. From beginning to end, your professional interventionist will do everything from help people phrase what they want to write in their letters, to overseeing and effectively running the intervention itself to escorting the alcoholic to alcohol rehab at The Canyon, should she or he choose to do so. Unbiased and neutral, a professional interventionist can take the burden of confronting your loved one off of you so that you can take care of yourself. If your loved one suffers from a co-occurring mental disorder, then a professional interventionist is recommended.

Follow Up an Alcoholic Intervention with Treatment at The Canyon

By choosing The Canyon as the alcohol rehab destination for your loved one, you are ensuring a safe and effective alcohol addiction treatment. If you are amenable to it, you may even choose to participate in family therapy with your loved one when they are ready for that level of treatment. If you have questions about alcohol intervention or alcohol rehab, call us at The Canyon today at .