INTERVENTIONS - Does Someone You Know in Pacific Beach, Carmel Valley, La Jolla, Del Mar or Encinitas Need an Alcohol or Drug Intervention?

Look at the reality of the disease of alcohol and drug addiction. DUI's, lost relationships, medical problems, legal problems, marriages that are unhappy, jobs lost, hurting and sad children, spouses and friends; lonely days and nights. Pleading, begging, arguing, hurting, shaming.   Trying to control an addiction is akin to trying to drive an out of control train, ready to fall off the tracks as it goes over a bridge. It needs to hit a wall or the ground before it comes to a stop.  In some cases that wall is death. 

Interventions to stop alcohol and drug are necessary to potentially save someone’s life. 

Types of  Interventions

§  Medical  – the  physician or medical specialist tells you to stop drinking because of a serious or potentially dangerous medical condition, e.g. cirrhosis, stroke, pancreatis, kidney failure

§   Legal  – a 1^st or 2^nd or 3^rd DUI; possession charge, intent to sell drugs, underage drinking; drunk & disorderly, domestic violence, nights in jail, court fines. The court sends you to classes, restricts or eliminates your driving privileges,  and your attorney charges a lot of money. 

§   Work  – referral to EAP, no pay raise, placed on probation, demotion, work related injury or termination

§  Family – partner leaves or threatens to leave, locks you out of the home, turns the children on you, has an affair or gets other family members involved and they talk behind your back, turn on you or watch your every move

§  Social – losing a friendship or not being invited to social gatherings because of alcohol or drug related incident or multiple incidents

§  Spiritual  – feeling completely empty, lonely, demoralized, fearful and asking for HELP from a spiritual source. 
§  Planned  – family and friends consult an interventionist or treatment program to help them to communicate their love and concern in a loving and non-confrontive, non judgmental  manner, asking you to receive help from treatment facility. Because they love you and want you to get help before the disease of addiction gets worse.

Will an intervention stop a person from using alcohol and drugs? 

1.      If they can find sufficient motivation to stop.

2.      If the family members change their attitude and recognize that they too have been impacted by the effects of the addiction. In order to establish recovery and to rebuild trust, the family needs to be involved in the treatment and or receive their own help. 

3.      Family involvement can have a significant impact on a person’s ability to initiate treatment and to develop a strong and lasting recovery. 

If you are sick and tired of using alcohol or drugs or watching someone you love slowly kill themselves and would like more information on Outpatient Day and Evening Addiction Treatment give us a call. Lasting Recovery (858) 453-4315.We are here to help.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D., MFT, CAS

Co-founder and Executive Director

Licensed Family therapist working with addictions and families since 1981

“Within every problem lie the seeds of it’s own solution.”

-- Anon