Mini Series 12 - Addiction Q&A - 6

Busting Addiction and Its Myths

Q: Do interventions work?
A: Yes and no. Interventions come in two categories: professional and family led. Even interventions conducted by professional interventionists may fail if the subject of the intervention refuses to “get on the plane”. Often this happens because the family has somehow failed in organising its own part, or the intervention somehow provokes anger or blaming over past events. Nonetheless, professional interventions succeed far more often (defined as the subject agreeing to get help) than do family-organised interventions.
Unless the family reads the same guidelines (such as Debra and Jeff Jay’s book Love First), abides by the “rules” and rehearses the intervention, their chances are less than average. A failed intervention may lead to a serious rupture in family relations, including blaming family members for their part in the “failure”, when it was quite noble to try in the first place.