Addiction Services

How to do a drug addiction intervention for a family member?

Having a family member who is an addict is very difficult. They might be able to hide the addiction successfully for a very long time or you might be ignoring it thinking that they will get better.  As a responsible family member, you should not delude yourself. If you feel that a parent or a child is now actively using drugs, you will have to stage a drug addiction intervention and the quicker the better.

What happens during a drug intervention?
Right off, let’s get it clear that it’s not going to be easy. A drug intervention is a very carefully planned event where family, friends, counselors and if required a responsible member of the community can get together and show the addict what he or she is doing. It is going to be a confrontation of sorts as no one likes to be told that they are sick. Family members will have to provide specific examples where the addict carried out dangerous behavior which could have affected the entire family. At the family intervention, you have to ask the addict to accept the fact that he is an addict and to start treatment for the problem.  Family members will also have to be supportive but firm in stating that treatment will be required and if the addict does not get treatment; a much harsher alternative will be tried to break the addiction.

Will drug intervention programs work?
Planning is the backbone for an effective intervention program. You will have to coordinate with family members and plan out a day and time when the addict will be at home for the family intervention. You will have to proof about addiction which cannot be refuted and specific consequences like cutting off account access, moving out with the children have to be planned before the actual event. Addicts are frequently in denial and drug intervention programs can very easily turn ugly. The addict might be so into his addiction that the completely opposite effect may happen. The addict might swear off his entire family and friends and move out to delve deeper into his obsession. They might also try to delay treatment in an effort to avoid the recovery program. They might try to borrow money from other family members in an effort to continue their lifestyle. As a result, having a professional at the intervention program is absolutely necessary. A professional counselor will be able to deal with all the excuses and reasons that an addict provides and he will ensure that all family members are sticking to the intervention program.

To ensure that your loved one is off drugs, we suggest you find good intervention services or trained professionals who will be able to help you professionally and quickly. Its never too late to get better and you have to start with family intervention.

Alcoholism or alcohol addiction is the physical or psychological need for intoxicating drink. Alcoholic beverages are primarily made from fermented grain or fruit such as wine, rum, beer, whiskey and other hard spirits. Drinking alcohol can become an addiction when an individual begins to experience cravings and is unable to limit or control the drinking. An individual can be classified as an alcoholic when they experience classic withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, sweating and anxiety. An individual may also be regarded as an alcoholic if he or she feels the need to drink increased amounts of intoxicating drinks in order to feel the effects. At this point, this individual would need an addiction recovery treatment.

Many people falsely believe that it is just a matter of will or wanting to quit, but addiction is much more complex than that. When an individual becomes addicted to alcohol, the need to experience the effects of alcohol are so overwhelming that it overpowers the person’s capacity to stay in control of his or her drinking. This requires specialized support specifically in alcohol recovery in order to help the individual overcome their addiction. There may be several reasons a person may become addicted to alcohol, while another person does not. Some of those reasons may be an individual’s propensity for becoming easily addicted to anything, traumatic life experiences or one’s environment and surrounding influences. An addiction to alcohol can lead to many short and long-term problems such as physical damage, mental health issues and a shortened expected life span.

Excess intake of alcohol often leads to addiction which in turn causes irreversible and often times severe physical and mental health damage. If an individual is facing an alcohol addiction there are many resources available to overcome this addiction and there are people who will care for and offer support throughout his or her journey to alcohol addiction treatment. The first step in facing any addiction is to admit there is a problem. The start of the alcohol addiction recovery begins with taking the time to understand the addiction and tailor a program to create the ideal alcohol recovery plan that will work best for that unique individual.

Healthcare workers in alcohol addiction treatment centers have attempted many different styles and approaches to counseling and recovery plans. Different drug addiction rehab or addiction recovery centers may use a combination of programs, or stay with a specific alcohol recovery program. Some recovery action programs have proven much more successful than others in assisting alcoholics in their recovery. In these custom programs, individuals facing addictions are guided one step at a time through the recovery process and shown how and why alcohol has such an impact in their lives, and the lives of those around the individual. The addict is given specific instructions to carry out and is supported at they go through their action plan. The individual may be put in contact with other people that have successfully overcome an addiction and people that are also in the recovery stages in order to offer moral support and decrease the chance of a relapse.

Southern Bucks Recovery Community Center announces ‘Gateway to Work’
The Southern Bucks Recovery Community Center (SBRCC) is accepting applications for candidates who want to participate in PRO-ACT’s Gateway to Work project, a new program designed to provide valuable job-seeking skills. The free program begins Wednesday, Jan. 12 at the SBRCC in the Bristol Office Center, 1286 Veterans Highway.
Read more on Bristol Pilot

CNCC offering Tree of Hope
For anyone whose life has been affected by addiction, the holiday season can be an especially difficult time.
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After rehab release, more uncertainty for Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is scheduled to be released from a rehab center Monday into another year of uncertainty.
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Lombardo’s High , with Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit, Aiming for Broadway
Matthew Lombardo’s new play High, starring Kathleen Turner, is aiming for a Broadway arrival in spring 2011 with its Tony and Academy Award-nominated star in tow, according to a casting notice.
Read more on Playbill

Lombardo’s High , with Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit, Aiming for Broadway
Matthew Lombardo’s new play High, starring Kathleen Turner, is aiming for a Broadway arrival in spring 2011 with its Tony and Academy Award-nominated star in tow, according to a casting notice.
Read more on Playbill

Agency helps to overcome holiday depression
Leaders of a Stockbridge mental health facility are working to help area residents, who suffer from depression during the holiday season.
Read more on Henry Daily Herald

Passages Malibu Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center Announces Launch of Cutting-Edge ‘Brain Paint’ Neurofeedback Therapy
The world-renowned Passages Malibu, the state-of-the-art one-on-one holistic drug and alcohol treatment center, today announced the launch of the “Brain Paint” Neurofeedback, scientifically proven to reduce relapse, as the latest cutting-edge therapy offered to its clients, who benefit from the fact that Passages now offers a more extensive array of therapies than any other treatment center in …
Read more on redOrbit

A Mother’s Story
Teresa Lane shows her son’s favorite book, “It’s Hard to be Five,” at Bijou Park. Almost a year ago, 11-year-old Chandler Nash Elliott’s suicide shocked his Lake Tahoe community.
Read more on Tahoe Daily Tribune

Passages Malibu Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center Announces Launch of Cutting-Edge ‘Brain Paint’ Neurofeedback Therapy
The world-renowned Passages Malibu, the state-of-the-art one-on-one holistic drug and alcohol treatment center, today announced the launch of the “Brain Paint” Neurofeedback, scientifically proven to reduce relapse, as the latest cutting-edge therapy offered to its clients, who benefit from the fact that Passages now offers a more extensive array of therapies than any other treatment center in …
Read more on redOrbit

A Mother’s Story
Teresa Lane shows her son’s favorite book, “It’s Hard to be Five,” at Bijou Park. Almost a year ago, 11-year-old Chandler Nash Elliott’s suicide shocked his Lake Tahoe community.
Read more on Tahoe Daily Tribune

Lombardo’s High , with Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit, Aiming for Broadway
Matthew Lombardo’s new play High, starring Kathleen Turner, is aiming for a Broadway arrival in spring 2011 with its Tony and Academy Award-nominated star in tow, according to a casting notice.
Read more on Playbill

by Portland Prevention

Relapse Prevention – Common Causes of Relapse in Each Phase of Addiction Recovery

Despite the best of intentions, a large number of people entering addiction recovery will relapse.

Addiction recovery can be looked at as having 3 phases, each with its goals and growth opportunities. In each phase there are certain dangers present that need to be identified and planned for. Let’s take a look at each of these 3 phases.

Phase 1, Early Recovery

In early recovery the goal at its simplest is abstinence from all mood altering chemicals. Stop using. In order to do that certain areas of new knowledge need to be addressed:

Knowledge of addiction and its global effects must be learned. Refusal skills and coping skills must be identified and learned. A sobriety based support system must be started and developed.

People entering early recovery need to learn how to develop, thinking, feelings, and behaviors based in recovery principles to replace those formed while in active addiction.

The major cause of relapse during the phase 1, or the early recovery period is not developing effective recovery and social skills that are needed to build an abstinence and recovery based lifestyle.

Phase 2, Middle Recovery

The major goal of development in middle recovery is establishing a balanced lifestyle. A major objective is to start to identify the wreckage of the past and start to address it. With abstinence established in phase 1, it is time to turn to developing personal growth and maturity. Stress can sometimes escalate as the person returns to ‘the real world’. Items often addressed are:

Doing personal work to reestablish self-esteem and self-worth. Repairing damaged relationships with family and friends. Moving back into society in a contributing and productive way.

The major cause of relapse during the middle recovery period is handling emotions and relationships generated by life problems.

Phase 3, Later Recovery period

In the later phase of recovery, people strive to make changes in ongoing issues that have continued to block or inhibit life satisfaction. This is the arrival at a ‘happy, joyous and free’ place in life. Choices are made according to a sound and newly developed sense of. Ethics, morality and purpose. This is a phase of personal growth and movement forward in life. Items worked on include:

Identifying and changing self-sabotaging and self-defeating behaviors. Examining sources of personality issues. Working through family of origin issues.

The major cause of relapse during phase 3, or the late recovery period, is either the lack of ability to cope and process the emotional stress of unresolved childhood issues or avoiding the need to change ones lifestyle and personality into one of health and growth.

And those are just the major relapse dangers in each phase of recovery. To learn more:

by absurd_hero

Question by liverlips86: Addiction recovery groups… new topic ideas?
Hi all! I’m wondering if anyone out there has any new and exciting ideas for some addiction recovery groups? I will be facilitating groups with up to 20 recovering addicts (with allll kinds of different addictions) and want to do something new. We do the usual: Step Study, Life Skills, Anger Management, etc., but I am just looking for some suggestions for new ideas and topics that I’ve not yet touched on. So, any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks.

Best answer:

Answer by Sabine É
biochemistry is the cause of addictions

What do you think? Answer below!

by CrashTestAddict

Are You Aware Of These 5 Phases Of Drug And Alcohol Addiction Recovery?

Here one way to look at phases of recovery, milestones to mark your progress. Addiction recovery can be thought of as moving through these five phases:

1. Admission of a problem

This is the key starting point. If there is no addiction problem then there certainly is no need for a solution to addiction. There is a certain logic to that. What would prevent someone from admitting they have an addiction problem? Well, how about memory distortion caused by their chemical dependency. There is a jazzy phrase called ‘euphoric recall’ which is the tendency to only remember the good times and positive experiences of using. That is half of the equation, at the same time we are suppressing or refusing to remember the far more numerous times where indulging in the addiction has caused pain and embarrassment. Another block to admitting the problem is our distorted defense mechanisms, such as minimizing, rationalizing and good old fashioned denial. If we get to the point that we acknowledge there is a problem and want to do something about it now, we can move on to the next phase of recovery which is compliance.

2. Compliance

What is meant by compliance here is going along with the most important seeing and agreeing to the concept of abstinence. This early phase of recovery usually involves little emotional insight into the whys of the addiction; the concentration is simply on ‘don’t do it? on a daily basis. Once we accept compliance as a necessary part of recovery, we can move toward the whys and wherefores. But it is not unusual to pass through the next phase of recovery which is defiance.

3. Defiance

Defiance can rear its head in several ways the most damaging is in the form of believing that the terms of addiction don’t apply to me. Picking and choosing what is to be done and not. done An example might be rejection of continuing care believing that is for others not me, or I have been ‘good’ for awhile I deserve to use again now that I proved I can quit. Another example of defiance can be becoming engaged in anger toward others who do not have your affliction or getting on the pity pot with the ‘poor me’s’. Defiance and anger can also be a block toward connecting and resolving with your emotions and feelings that underlie the blanketing emotion of anger.

4. Acceptance

One of my favorite philosophers was Popeye The Sailor Man, he used to say “I y’am what I y’am”. However you come to accept your addiction whether you believe it is a no fault illness, or you simple got dealt a bad hand in life, accepting your addiction allows you to move out of the problem and into the solution. People who are accepting are generally less defensive and have a greater sense of emotional and personal identity. Acceptance is the first step toward beginning to trust yourself and others, and open the possibilities of self-evaluation.

5. Surrender

We are not talking about submission but rather surrender they are very different. Submission is a temporary yielding, it tends to leave the escape hatch of returning to the addiction open. There is an implication of force being used or submitting against your will. Surrender can be thought of as wholehearted acceptance and compliance. It is a voluntary action and does not mean being defeated as does submission, but rather a conscious decision not to participate. A boxer who has been knocked out has submitted to the power of his opponent. A boxer who has retired and does not climb in the ring any more has surrendered to the idea that he no longer chooses to fight.

In summing up the points made above we can say that progress in addiction recovery can be made by admitting there is a problem and seeing the need for change. We move through negativity and emotional blocks to our recovery to arrive at a point of acceptance. Our acceptance of the need to change eventually moves through an attitude of being defeated to voluntarily seeking a better life. Stringing these concepts together can be viewed as movement through the phases of recovery.

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