If you are planning to go forward with a drug intervention or alcohol intervention, the formation of the right intervention team is critical to the success of the process. You may only have one chance to persuade the addict to accept treatment and it is important to have the right mix of people present during the drug intervention to maximize your chances of success.



It is important to assemble a group when confronting an addict because most addicts are adept at defusing one-on-one conversations regarding the need for treatment. If you know somebody who is or has suffered from the disease of addiction, you are all too familiar with the frustration of one-on-one confrontations with the addict where you have tried to convince him to check in to treatment.. More than likely, you ended those conversations feeling frustrated, angry and helpless, while the addict continued with their disease.

The reality is that addicts are gifted when it comes to their defense mechanisms. They will lie, manipulate, deflect, minimize, rationalize, and do just about anything they can to protect their disease. The presence of a group of friends and family members tends to diffuse the addict's fine tuned defenses and put him in a position to receive the messages of love and concern.

The intervention team should be comprised of people who love the addicted friend or family member and who have direct experience with their using behavior. If possible, look for people that the addict respects and will listen to. The intervention team selection process might be a difficult order since addicts oftentimes destroy relationships. If I find that a family is having a difficult time organizing a drug intervention team, I'll ask the question who would attend the addict's funeral if he died from the disease? As morbid as that may sound, it has the tendency to drive home the importance of the intervention and the reality that people die from the disease of drug addiction.

Once a drug intervention team has been assembled, the team has to be made aware that the drug intervention has to be completely devoid of anger and resentments that may have been brewing resulting from the addict's behavior. I remind them that it is perfectly normal to have those feelings, but if they happen to surface during the drug intervention, the process will be sabotaged. The best solution for such emotions emanating from the drug intervention team is for the team members to process those feelings at another venue such as a therapist's office or Al Anon. The tone of the intervention should be calm and based on love and compassion with an eye toward the solution of treatment.

Preparation for the intervention is critical. There are many issues to resolve during the planning process including date, time and location of the drug intervention, selection of treatment facility, how to insure the addict will attend, what happens if the addict bolts out of the room, likely objections to treatment voiced by the addict, and a wide range of other considerations too lengthy to list in a brief article.

The good news is that while there are many factors and variables inherent in a drug intervention, with the proper planning and guidance from a professional intervention specialist, the process can be successfully achieved. I think the most egregious mistake is to do nothing. The notion that an addict must “want to get help on his own” or that “they have to hit their bottom first” is, in my opinion, absolute nonsense. Bottoms include death, jail, and/or insanity. Why on earth would you want a friend or family member go down any of those paths if a more humane and loving approach existed? Facilitating a drug intervention for a friend or family member suffering from addiction is the most loving, supportive and compassionate act you can do. Putting it in the alternate, if you didn't care about the addict, you'd do nothing at all.