Intervention

Have you ever found yourself the subject of an intervention? I was, on more than one occasion, but it was short-lived. An intervention is when family and friends gather together to talk about your problem and try to convince you to get help. They've seen how you've lost complete control when the search to escape has consumed your life. This realization terrifies everyone you love. Our health begins to suffer and we appear to be mere shells of a person. If we aren't ready to ask for help, we go into victim mode. We feel betrayed and misled by this unexpected confrontation when we find our family and friends waiting for us to show up. We can't even look at their faces but feel their disappointment. As each person begins to share their words, we start to mentally check out. If we feel enough pressure and guilt, we might agree to get help to end this uncomfortable session, with no guarantees. Interventions can be effective if there is a full commitment by the person struggling to get help. We might feel a tiny sense of hope if we agree but this can quickly vanish when our wounded inner child wakes up. Our wounded inner child is the voice inside our subconscious mind that attempts to protect us using the lies we used to tell ourselves to keep us stuck in this pattern of behavior. It creates fear we won't be able to use our crutch to shut out the noise. We even wonder how we will survive. In order for recovery to be successful, we need to want it for ourselves. We also had an intervention for my brother but he was too afraid to face his pain.

“My family needs to relax." "They don't understand what I'm going through." "I don't have a problem." "I can stop at anytime I want to if I tried." "They have no idea what I am going through and this helps." I will never behave lose control again."

Do any of these statements resonate with you? In truth, if you find yourself having similar thoughts, you aren't ready. When a person with an addiction isn't willing to get help, we have to let them go and tell them we can't watch them fall apart anymore. If I hadn't moved a thousand miles away from my family and friends, my life wouldn't have changed. It had too many potential enablers. We have to realize the act of being saved needs to come from within ourselves. I've met people who were incarcerated in my support groups. We were told that sometimes being locked away can give a person lots of time to reflect which could lead to recovery. Other times, it would do very little when they felt so lost. So they search inside to find a fix to their addiction, even if they could serve more time if they were caught. Our addiction can be insatiable. Prison/Jail can temporarily put an end to an addiction, but if there isn't an effort to get some healing done behind bars or after being released, these individuals might return to their old habits. If we manage to somehow stop feeding our addiction, but we don't work on healing the wounds that led us there, we make ourselves vulnerable to relapse or by replacing one addiction for another. We are still trying to escape.

Sometimes the lost still don't want to be found. When it comes down to getting help, the only person who can help us is ourselves. This is a decision that needs to be done on our own. Addiction can be an expensive and painful affliction we keep putting ourselves through until we find the courage within ourselves to stop. If we are considering stopping, please join a support group. We also have to remember no matter how bad it gets, this isn't the end. We are still here and we hold the power to the life we want. Our story isn't over, and we still have time to add new chapters. Everyone gets a chance to start over even if they didn't have a good beginning. Let me help you if you are ready to change your life.

"Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles and you have to change it." - Jamie Lee Curtis

"There is no recovery for anyone without lifting the lid on the pain of the past and letting in the light." - Rob Lowe

"Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you doesn't mean you can, should, or need to do it alone." - Lisa Olivera

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Please email me at jackie@theaddictinme.com if you want to set up a free consultation to help you get started on your healing journey. Suffering is not supposed to be a part of life. We are here to learn, grow and evolve so we can live a happy, healthy, and productive life. We can do so much more than you could imagine. Let me show you how.