Watching a family member or a loved one struggle with addiction can be tough. For many people, it is hard to know when to get involved and how to bring your loved ones back to their faith and start them on their journey of recovery. A faith-based intervention is often the first step. Here is how to go about hosting one and the key information you should know.
What is an Intervention?
Living with someone addicted to drugs or alcohol is challenging every single day. Many family members and loved ones find it hard to get through to the person and convince them to choose a different path. That is when an intervention can help.
An intervention is a carefully planned, structured event that allows family members and friends to offer the person they are concerned about an opportunity to make changes. Most interventions are planned together with a medical professional or a licensed substance abuse counselor. Others are conducted under the guidance of a professional interventionist.
Interventions involve confronting your loved one about their addiction and showing them a way toward seeking help.
Why is a Faith-Based Intervention Different?
Rather than being led by medical professionals or secular counselors, faith-based interventions are guided by a member of your faith and put the Word of God at the heart of the proceedings.
During the intervention, family members, friends, and spiritual advisors will confront your loved one with the consequences of their addiction. They will give specific examples of how the addictive and destructive behavior has hurt the family and others in the person’s environment.
The goal of a faith-based intervention is to convince the addict to accept help by committing to a recovery program. Interventions also show the person at the center what each family member will do if they do not agree to seek help.
How Can I Prepare for a Faith-Based Intervention?
Start by seeking help from a spiritual counselor or a faith-based recovery program such as S2LRecovery. Our team is deeply experienced in handling difficult situations, and we’re here to help you help your loved ones.
Preparing an intervention usually involves several steps:
- Plan the intervention together with a spiritual advisor. This will help you navigate emotional situations without letting things spiral out of control.
- Get together an intervention team. This could be family members but also others who can help keep the discussion focused on addiction and faith-based recovery. Make notes of what you want to say, and don’t be afraid to rehearse your speech. In fact, it is important to stick to constructive language during the meeting.
- Decide on the solution you want to offer the person struggling with addiction.
- Decide on realistic, actionable consequences in case your friend or family member refuses the offer of help. Stand firm on these consequences.
What Happens After the Intervention?
Ideally, the intervention ends with a firm commitment to enter a recovery program or seek structured help in another way. Even with this commitment in place, the intervention team should make a plan to follow up on the actual intervention meeting.
Check if your loved one has made arrangements to enter into rehabilitation and set deadlines. You may also need to consider making changes around the home to make destructive behaviors harder and putting in place some form of recovery support.
Remember, recovery doesn’t end when a person leaves a facility. They are in a better place now, but they will still need love and spiritual support to stay on their new path.
Where Can I Get More Information?
Not all approaches to drug and alcohol rehabilitation are the same. Whilst the 12-step program certainly has its place, we found that putting the Word of God at the center of our approach has been tremendously successful.
Leaning on a hopeful future and a community-based model for immediate aftercare has helped us change addicts’ lives. If that sounds like an approach that could work for your loved one, contact our team today. We’re here to help you from the moment you decide to organize a faith-based intervention all the way through to solid aftercare.
