Alcoholism and drug addiction are conditions which can overtake the individual and without intervention services may lead to life imprisonment, whole life ruin and even death. Help is available. The person you still love and worry about is most likely salvageable. Given the right solution, that person can regain a life worth living.

When a person speaks about "doing" an intervention with someone they love or performing an intervention "on" a person addicted, what is really meant?

Basically there are some overarching general goals of a successful intervention that when followed will likely produce the desired outcome, a life saved.

What follows is a brief overview of those basic steps as applied by an experienced Intervention Specialist.

Intervention: The organized attempt by family, friends and professionals to intervene into the life of someone addicted to drugs and/or alcohol resulting in the person agreeing to get addiction help.

When family and friends notice that their loved one needs help, they will often research addiction and drug rehab programs immediately to get the person help. This can be a long process at times and is stressful on the person who is trying to find the best solution to their problem.

When there is an obvious problem associated with drugs and/or alcohol and yet the person suffering can't immediately see the problem and agree to get the help they need to fix it, an intervention is needed. It is then up to the person's family and friends to not let them succumb to their own demise and those who love them, must orchestrate an intervention or intervene into the addicted person's life and cause them to reach for the help they so desperately need.

Once this decision is made all efforts are geared toward getting the person to seek help. It is wise at this point to consult a professional intervention team who can lead the family through the maze of interaction including an actual formal "sit-down" meeting with the person to get their agreement to get help. There are a lot of issues that arise during an intervention, some of which having to do with the person's medical safety, that must be addressed accurately so as not to put the person in more harms way by attempting to help them. Watching for severe withdrawal signs, assessing the person's real drug use history to determine if all safety factors are in place and knowing when the person should be lucid and coherent as well as the best time to get the person's agreement are just some of the factors which must be taken into account during an intervention.

We will help you put it all together so that the right intervention is done at the right time and all safety factors are held in place. Further, we will attend the meetings with the family and the person addicted and see the process through till the person has not only gotten help but also re-acclimated themselves back into life successfully. The general services we offer are as follows.

Process Overview

1. Contact Intervention Angel and speak to our trained staff to identify what you're situation is and what the next action should be. An intervention specialist will discuss the person addicted and their general drug or alcohol related scene, past and present, and establish what the intervention should be as well as the circumstances in which it will take place.

2. Previous to meeting with the person addicted the interventionist will meet with the family members and others who will be involved to ensure that person understands their role in the intervention, as well as develop contingency plans to ensure success is achieved.

3. Execute the intervention meeting with the person addicted. Because the situation will already be awkward and uncomfortable, our intervention specialists find that the individual's house, or house of a close family member is often ideal. This will likely involve other family members or friends and their attendance must have been pre-arranged in the pre-intervention planning.

4. After the intervention has taken place, Intervention Angel will continue to spend time with the chemically-dependent (assisting him/her in initial detox if necessary) and provide transportation to the recovery resource such as an addiction treatment center etc to ensure the person arrives safely and willing to change.

5. Once the individual is safely into the facility of choice a good Interventionist Angel will follow up with the person undergoing treatment as well as the family to assist the family to ensure the person continues with their treatment to completion.

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As a counselor, there as many rehabs out there as their are drugs on the market today. 

Correct and useful guidance from counselors that are available to actually spend some time with you is key.

I have done my research let me tell you and what I have discovered about the programs available within these United States is staggering.  For the most part available programs are some semblance of 12 steps in some obscure way.  And yes, these type programs do work for some but not for all.  Which leads me to the point that you must find the right program for each individual or you could be suffering through an addiction with your loved one for a very long time.  As long as they survive, while they are addicted, the family suffers as much if not more than the addict.  Watching someone you love slowly destroy themselves could be the most painful thing a family ever witnesses. Choosing the right rehabilitation program is imperative.  Environment, including venue is of extreme importance.  Program practices and staff experience are invaluable as well.  A program that lacks reality with an addict cannot be considered therapy.  Doctors may have an education but may also lack the real life experience necessary to actually impinge upon an addicts life.  Many programs focus on psychiatric drugs as a replacement for street drugs this is often times dangerous to a person's physical health as well as mental health.  As someone who was wrongly prescribed psych drugs for a very long time, I have first hand experience with the readily available mood altering substances that are given like candy to anyone who boasts the need.  Which, in many cases is simply a desire to get high, fueled by a Doctor's desire to prescribe drugs.

Do your research!  Talk to as many professional rehabilitation referral counselors as possible and get your questions answered.  Trust what you are hearing from counselors who have overcome addictions of their own.  These are the people that can truly help your loved one and guide you in helping them find a better life.

Programs that address a person on a physical level, emotional level and social level are the most successful.  Physical cravings in combination with mental re-stimulation is one of the key factors in overcoming addiction from any standpoint.  The body physically craves drugs and alcohol, the mind craves the euphoric feeling derived from getting high or drunk or both and tied together make it seemingly impossible to overcome.  Most addicts don't feel as though they are having a physical craving because these feelings can be so subtle.  It's important that you find rehabilitation that handles an addict in all three ways.

Don't buy into the bad things you read on the internet regarding specific programs.  Let's remember that we are dealing with drug addicts, extremist, and family members who sometimes aren't satisfied with the outcome of treatment.  The problems always lie with the addict, and their inability to do the programs as prescribed and if you chose a program that handles an addict physically, emotionally and socially, it will work.  It's always a good idea to use intervention if your loved one has fear or concern in going to a program.  Intervention Specialists are specifically trained to help a person make the right choice for themselves.  Getting the person excited about the prospect of having a better life is a trait you want to look for when choosing an Intervention Specialists.  When you have an addiction the idea of living drug free is very frightening so you want to make certain that you have someone who has been down that road and knows the way out.

I hope this information proves helpful to you in making your choice of rehabilitation easier.

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Meth Addiction

Methamphetimine Addiction has become one of the worst Addictions across America today, it is commonly known as meth, crank, glass, ice..... 

Meth addiction is a problem that has spread to all areas of the United States. During 1999 4.3% (9.4 million people) of the U.S. population reported trying meth at least once in their lifetime. The highest rate of meth use was among adults ages 18-25. Although meth use is an epidemic across the United States, nowhere is it a bigger problem that in the Midwest. Meth accounts for nearly 90% of all drug cases in the Midwest, and is most prevalent in Oklahoma. Meth is surpassing cocaine as the drug of choice in Oklahoma. The state medical examiner's office reports the number of death cases testing positive for meth have been higher than cocaine for the past three years. The office also reports meth is found in more and more cases of homicides, and motor vehicle accidents.

Meth is a stimulant that imitates the way the chemicals in the brain manufacture and transmit messages of gratification to the brain's pleasure center. An individual can become dependent on meth almost immediately after their first time using the drug. Researchers believe that this is because meth is able to produce a manufactured sense of pleasure due to the way it interacts with the user's brain. Similar to the body's natural hormone adrenaline, meth raises heart rates, blood pressures, and breathing rates. Due to the body's physical as well as physiological reactions to meth the brain begins to expect the immediate gratification that it has become accustomed to. Because the use of meth produces this sense of instant gratification it becomes harder for life's normal rewards to create the same sense of pleasure.

Over time, the individual places more trust in meth's effects while other areas of daily life seem diminished and unimportant. Initially this takes place on a physical level then on a psychological level. One the physical level of dependence the individual continually strives to achieve the initial "rush" they felt the first time they used meth. This is not possible though; due to meth's ability to suppress and deplete the brain's production of normal chemical messages that create pleasurable feelings. Continual meth use changes the brain. It is forced to adapt to the presence of meth and lowers the production of other normal chemical messengers.
Psychological meth addiction is due to its tight hold on the individual's pleasure center. Meth begins to rule over the individual's life, demanding attention at all times. This in turn leads them to resent circumstances when they are unable to use meth, such as with non-using friends, work, school, and family. As this resentment builds the individual will push others away who no longer "fit" into their desired lifestyle.

No one wants to be a meth addict, but this doesn't stop people from getting addicted. The most commonly asked question is simply - how? How could my son, daughter, father, sister, or brother become a liar, a thief, someone who cannot be trusted? How could this happen? And why won't they stop? To understand an individual's fixation on meth you first must understand why a person uses. Most people use meth to change how they feel because they want to feel better or different. They use meth for the perceived benefits, or the benefits experienced, not for the potential harm. People use meth to have fun, to be part of a group, out of curiosity, and to escape from physical and/or psychological pain.

There are numerous reasons why an individual would begin using meth. One common thread throughout all the reasons is that using meth produces pleasurable effects which the individual likes. The individual knows that each time they use they will feel good ("high"), so they seek out this feeling. At first, using meth is about the pleasure obtained through taking it. As time goes on though, the individual begins to feel they need to take meth to feel normal. The individuals fall into meth addiction is unintentional and usually unforeseen by them.

Individuals who struggle with a tendency to use meth do not set out to destroy themselves, everyone and everything in their path. These disastrous consequences are the effect of the vicious cycle of a meth habit. For many, meth use seems to be a means of averting emotional and/or physical pain by providing the user with a temporary escape from life's sometimes uncomfortable realities. Example, a person tries meth. The drug APPEARS to solve their problems. They feel better. Because they now SEEM better able to deal with life, meth becomes valuable to them. The person looks at meth as a cure for unwanted feelings. The painkilling effects of meth become a solution to their discomfort. This release is the main reason a person uses meth a second or third time. It is just a matter of time before they becomes fully addicted and loses the ability to control their meth use. Meth addiction, then, results from excessive or continued use of the drug in an attempt to resolve the underlying symptoms of discomfort or unhappiness.

Over time, a person's ability to choose not to take meth can become compromised--soon enough the person rationalizes the need to use consistently and will do anything to get high. They are now caught in the vicious cycle of using to alleviate pain and creating more pain by using. They now display the physiological symptoms of a fixation with meth. They become difficult to communicate with, are withdrawn, and begin to exhibit other strange behaviors associated with a meth habit.

In addition to the mental stress created by their unethical behavior, the addict's body has also adapted to the presence of the drug. They will experience an overwhelming obsession with getting and using meth. This is when the newly-created addict begins to experience meth cravings. Ironically, the addict's ability to get "high" from meth gradually decreases as his body adapts to the presence of foreign chemicals. They must take more and more meth, not just to get an effect but often just to function at all.
At this point, the addict is stuck in the vicious dwindling spiral of meth addiction. Meth use has changed them both physically and mentally. They have crossed an invisible and intangible line.

The compulsion to use meth can take over the individual's life. An individual's gravitation to meth often involves not only compulsive drug taking but also a wide range of dysfunctional behaviors that can interfere with normal functioning in the family, the workplace, and the broader community. Meth addiction can place users at an increased risk for a wide variety of other illnesses. These illnesses can be brought on by behaviors, such as poor living and health habits, that often accompany life as a meth addict, or because of toxic effects of the drug.

 

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                                                          "ADDICTION AND THE FAMILY"

 

What do you say, Addiction, can it be overcome?  I say the answer is yes, I have dedicated my life to helping Addicts and WOW, it helps me.  Addiction ruled our family, very few people in my family didn't get hit with it.

I have 2 siblings, my brother is not longer with us because of suicide over drugs and alcohol, and my sister has 3 years sobriety, I am working on 11 and forever grateful.  How do I do it, by living the right way, treating people for the most part like I want to be treated, first and foremost depending on GOD, and helping others. 

I am learing on a daily basis, I try to be humble, grateul and always try to remember not to take anything in life for granted, life is a blessing and each day is a gift. 

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No matter how long a person's addiction has been going on, they still will likely want to avoid getting help as long as possible. Soemthing else to do, don't like that place, and a whole variety of other things spoken and thought which prevent the person from committing themselves to getting help Right NOW.

 

It is right now that the help is needed. Not latter when many more bad things have happened. Help someone get the help they need right now and not latter. 

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