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Alcohol Addiction Intervention - Personal reflections from Bill, our family business alcoholism expert, sober for more than 34 years.
Alcohol addiction intervention is widely used to help people with a drinking problem. I know lives have been saved, and many alcoholics/drug addicted folks credit an intervention for turning around their lives. However, I have some reservations about interventions in the typical sense. A typical intervention is comprised of a group of family members, friends, and people from the business that are coached by a facilitator before the intervention. Then the alcoholic is brought in, with no prior knowledge to the group described above, with the facilitator running the meeting. I believe there are flaws in this model. The model is that the individuals in the group will read a prewritten letter to the alcoholic, telling the alcoholic how his/her drinking has affected the letter reader. This surprise, direct confrontation is supposed to raise the “bottom”, so the alcoholic will stop drinking and won’t have to go all the way to the bottom. My concern is the bottom is temporarily raised, but for the wrong reasons. Many will quit, go to treatment, or seek other help, for a while. Because the alcoholic has stopped drinking/drugging for “them”, not for themself. In a majority of cases the abstinence will not last, because the alcoholic is quitting for the wrong reason, to please others. I believe a more effective way, is for the afflicted person to reach out on their own, or with gentle nudging from someone they trust. There are professionals, experts in this area that can be brought in, build trust quickly, and give the alcoholic room to maneuver, until s/he can finds their own way, on his/her schedule. This is still a form of intervention, but lower key, more personal and allows the drinker/drug user to listen to stories from someone that has been there, which gives the afflicted person real evidence to identify with, followed by stories of solutions that work, which inspires hope and a desire to stop the insanity. These are the three, evidence based, proven essentials for long term, contented recovery from alcohol and drugs: 1. Complete abstinence from alcohol and drugs. 2. A personal housecleaning including getting rid of the dark secrets, and the terminal uniqueness (those beliefs that keep us separate from the world). 3. Being of service in one form or another (there are many options). If you or a member of your family business is having problems with alcoholism, contact our family business alcoholism expert and ask about our Family Business Alcohol Rehabilitation Program - we can help! Our Family Business Alcoholism Rehabilitation program can make the difference in the initial intervention results and lasting choices.
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