Overcoming drug addiction and alcohol addiction is a challenge to both family members and friends of the substance abuser. Most addicts and alcoholics support groups are mostly composed of friends and family. That is right; overcoming this addiction does not only require the efforts of the addict but also that of his loved ones but ultimately the alcoholic is the one who has to do the footwork to stay clean and sober.
How to help an alcoholic or substance abuser with an intervention for alcoholism or drug addiction
If you’re loved one is in denial about their drug abuse or drinking problem or they just refuse to stop using then the first step in overcoming drug and alcohol addiction is a successful alcoholic intervention. This step is considered as the start of the healing process.
The addict or alcoholic must:
1) Surrender completely to the idea that they can not drink or use drugs like normal people.
2) Surrender completely to the idea that they have tried to change on their own, and they cannot. They must accept defeat; that they have tried and failed to fix their problem themselves.
3) Believe that some other power may have the ability to overcome their addiction, or help them to do so. They must believe in hope. They must cling to the idea that they could change, if someone would show them how.
Everyone that is going to be involved in the first process must be present all throughout the program for the person not to feel abandoned. The goal of the alcoholic intervention is to make the addict want to change himself. If the person will do it for the sake of others, then there is a possibility that he will fail.
The motivation must come from inside.
I have personally witnessed alcoholics and addicts stop using drugs for loved ones such as a wife or husband. Ultimately, they relapse because one has to stop drinking or using drugs for themselves. I am in recovery and it has been my experience that we must place our recovery first this means before the wife, husband, girlfriend, or whatever because if we continue to use we will end up losing them sooner or later anyway.
After that has been established, a general check up must be done by a physician to let the addict know the adverse effects caused by drug abuse to their body. This way, they will have more motivation to change because of wanting to go back to a better well being.
The process is already presented in any drug rehab center but why do people still fail and relapse? This is because some addicts have “weak phases” where they long for drugs and alcohol again and are unable to resist the temptation. This happens once they are released from substance abuse treatment and are presented with so many situations that they once used drugs to cope with.
The real key in surviving this program is not in choosing a very expensive institution nor is it in the confinement of the addict in a certain place; it is in the persistence of the addict no matter what life throws at them to overcome addiction.
One more thing that people should know is that getting through an addiction is more of a learning process where the cognitive aspects of an addict must be used. There are many kinds of way to learn such as operant conditioning where in an individual changes his behavior because of the consequences it gives him.
Substance addiction is easy to overcome. The secret is just to learn and persist. Most people that are not hard headed learn from their mistakes so what I am getting at here is that if you do not succeed in staying clean the first time around do not give up because if we are persistent we never know when the miracle will happen.
I do not use the word miracle lightly here because any addict that can stop using drugs is indeed a miracle.
Good luck