Drug addiction is an incredibly difficult issue to tackle. Watching someone you love become consumed and overwhelmed by their addiction leaves you feeling hopeless and helpless. Perhaps the signs have been around for some time. Changes in personality and outlook, aggression, irritability, weight loss, extreme tiredness, depression and even getting involved in crime are all common for drug addiction. Or perhaps the fact that you’re reading this at all shows that the problem is real.
However you come to your conclusion, it’s important to realise you are not alone. There are many people in the same terrible position as you, and there are many drug addiction rehabilitation centres based in London, throughout the UK and beyond that can support your loved one in getting the drug addiction treatment they need.

How drug addiction intervention works

Some people living with drug addiction find it almost a relief if a loved one raises the full extent of their problem and suggests rehab. It’s like a weight has been lifted. Unfortunately, this isn’t what usually happens. Drug addiction skews the addict’s perspective and judgement – feelings of denial are often overwhelming and they may even be aggressive to the person who’s suggesting there’s a problem.

This can be extremely hurtful for you and it’s hard to know where to turn. If you feel that you’re not making any progress and the drug addiction is just getting worse, then it’s probably time to consider an intervention.

An intervention is where a professional third party becomes involved in persuading your loved one to go into rehabilitation or undertake a treatment programme for drug addiction. Intervention can be a productive way of supporting your loved one to begin making positive changes. If your loved one appears to be always under the influence of drugs, is aggressive, has a history of serious mental illness or has talked about suicide, then an intervention professional is essential.

Drug addiction intervention goals and aims

Obviously, the primary goal of a drug addiction intervention is to encourage an addict to stop taking drugs. For most drug addicts, this involves going into rehab for drug addiction treatment. Achieving this aim is led by the intervention professional but the support of loved ones is usually enlisted. This enables the intervention professional to help the person living with drug addiction understand what their drug abuse is doing to themselves and everyone around them.

Intervention is a challenging and sensitive process. It’s important that you’re open and honest as the intervention professional may suggest changes to the ways you support your loved one. Drug addiction is extremely complicated and it can be difficult to see behaviours that are actually enabling a loved one’s drug addiction when you’re so close to the situation.

The drug addiction intervention process

Before a drug addiction intervention begins, it’s important to plan the process. The intervention professional will lead on this. They’ll meet up with you and help determine the details. These will include who will attend the intervention and where it should take place. Your input here is vital as having the right people in the right setting can make a huge difference to the outcome of the intervention.

The intervention professional can also help you plan what you’d like to say during the intervention. Many people find it helpful to write this down and simply read it when the time comes. A few rehearsals before the actual intervention can also be helpful.

It’s a good idea to do some research into drug addiction rehabilitation centres before the intervention takes place. Ideally, you should going into an intervention with your loved one’s bag packed ready to go. This may sound extreme and dramatic – but if you can reach an agreement on going into drug addiction rehabilitation it’s vital to seize the moment and avoid opportunities to backtrack.

Step One Recovery holds drug addiction intervention

We can provide drug addiction intervention to help ease admission into rehab. Our highly experienced team of intervention specialists is accustomed to working with people in denial. We can begin intervention over the phone before meeting up to complete the process.

During many interventions, we’ve found that sitting down with family members and loved ones with one of our intervention professionals is enough for treatment to be agreed. Our interventions are reassuring rather than stressful and flow seamlessly into admission and treatment.