Hosting a drug intervention can be intimidating if you don’t know how to plan events accordingly. It takes a lot of moving parts to convince a drug addict to quit their substance abuse and actually face reality for their behavior. In a perfect world, a drug intervention would work out great and the addict would immediately sign up for the nearest treatment program because they are overwhelmed with remorse. Unfortunately, this is not the case because addicts do not think rationally about their substance abuse and chase their own personal desires instead. This can be incredibly frustrating for a family or friend who just wants to see their fellow addict look healthier and happier overall. It’s been too long to not continue watching them suffer and destroy their relationships, careers, and future overall.

In order to host a successful intervention, knowing everything you can about talking to an addict, pointing them to treatments, and speaking with compassion is important. You need to understand why they often fail in the first place so you don’t make the same mistakes yourself. But fear not, we’ll break down why these mistakes happen and the great things you can do to speak with confidence and influence.

• The first culprit of a failed drug intervention is not planning enough in advance before the right time comes. Interventions should always be conducted in a group environment with a team of people that really care about the person struggling with a drug. This means that anyone who is an acquaintance, distant coworker, or random relative should not be invited to take part.  Before the intervention actually occurs, the group should then plan out each piece of the event so they are on the same page. This includes outlining exactly what each person will want to tell the addict, a number of reasons of why the drug is affecting their life, and what consequences their addiction has had on other people’s wellbeing.

• After your feelings of concern are planned out, be sure to read over them before talking to the addict so you sound concise yet empathetic with your communication. From there, find a successful treatment center that is hopefully close to your local residence that will admit the addict as soon as the intervention is completed. In order to ensure a successful intervention is taking place, the addict should have an appointment immediately scheduled so they can begin the treatment process after he or she finally agrees to get some help. Look at different detox centers, counselors, or even call national hotlines to get a variety of opinions on what will help the addict. Be sure to consider what the addict enjoys and hates as far as an environment goes so they aren’t uncomfortable in the beginning. For example, if the addict hates hospitals or isolation, don’t book them a private room in a long term rehab suite with regular drop ins from a therapist. However, if the addict loves talking to people and likes being in social situations, booking them a seat in a nearby drug peer support group may be the answer to provide enough accountability without making them hate their life.
• Get a professional interventionist to lead the preparation for and execute the actual drug intervention so no mistakes are made. The normal person isn’t trained for years on how to schedule and deliver successful drug interventions, so it’s okay if you have many questions and feel like you have no idea what to do. Since some people with drug problems also have other problems that make them unstable or potentially dangerous, having a trained professional in the vicinity can ensure that the drug intervention runs smoothly and no one gets hurt. Take a look at what experts are in your area so you can get in contact with them well beforehand. Often, they will provide a complimentary consultation to talk about your situation so you both can decide if partnering up will be a good fit.
• Don’t focus too much on the drug addict and their problem. No addict will want to feel like a major liability to their peers even if they are remorseful for what damage they have caused. Instead, to ensure that they will take on a new treatment plan and listen to what you actually have to say, and focus on a specific solution that is tailored to their needs. Be wary of giving the person too many options of treatment because they will get lost in choosing. They may also become less motivated if they have to choose the steps for getting healthier themselves, so do them a favor and just sort through the details of booking appointments, flights to treatment centers, or calling local doctors yourself. It may take up more time on your part, but if you are already investing a lot of resources in scheduling a drug intervention you might as well dig a little deeper to make the event as fail proof as possible. This way, you won’t look back on the conversation with regret and wonder if you could have done something completely different.

Get Drug Addiction Support

These days, hosting a successful drug intervention is easy when you have access to hundreds of trained intervention professionals. By taking the time to work with their advice, you can together craft a strong dialogue, treatment recommendation, and statement of concern to the addict so they come out eager to gain help. We all want our loved ones to be happy and healthy, so learning about these options is crucial so that outcome happens. Learn more about why  are a step by step process and take a team of different personalities to deliver a diverse yet efficient effect on the addict!

Before we start discussing why some professionals turn to drugs to solve their problems, there are a lot of stereotypes about the types of people who abuse drugs. For a start, many people assume that people who abuse drugs are lazy, weak and morally flawed. They believe that the list of drug abusers would never include people in high up places, whether they work in business, politics or any other part of a stable American society.

The usual culprits that abuse drugs are thought to be the drop outs, losers and people who don’t have anything going for them. I am here to shed some light on the reality of drug abuse: the truth is, all different kinds of people abuse drugs, no matter their age, income level, social status, race or personality. There is not one class of people that are more susceptible than others, as many people with working jobs are just as stressed as those looking for their next dollar. Every person’s situation is different and, therefore, who are we to judge only what we see on the surface level?

Drug abuse is a serious problem in the United States for millions and millions of people, and many of these people are working professionals. Their jobs cause them to be stressed on a daily basis, giving them a reason to look for a way out emotionally from the pressures of their everyday life.  Although these people with high paying stable jobs may appear to have everything under control, they actually might have a higher potential to abuse drugs than everyone else. The pressures and demands of a career-driven life can lead people to make very bad decisions in deed.

Why do working professionals abuse drugs?

Some of the reasons many working professionals turn to drug abuse relates to their desire to self-medicate. To show how deeply rooted these issues are, we will take a look at some facts that were found in a report reflecting some doctor’s behavior across the United States.

As doctors, you would expect them to be the smartest when it came to drugs and what not to do. However, the toll they pay to do their job is so great that even these people sometimes turn to illegal drug abuse to get by. There was an interesting report found by Naueru that doctors may illegally self-prescribe drugs to cope with the stresses of their everyday life. Being a doctor is a very serious and tough job. Witnessing death every day, having lives rely on you, and having so many what-if scenarios play on your mind daily would never be an easy thing to handle, no matter how mentally strong you may be. Therefore, it was found that a few doctors use prescription medication illegally to self-treat the following problems:

• Emotional pain and psychological conditions: these were two of the most widely-reported reasons that doctors self-prescribed. In an attempt to help their own mental health condition, the doctors prescribed themselves drugs to try and treat their anxiety and depression.

• Physical pain: a large portion of the doctors in the study started using drugs illegally to try and numb pain. Directly after being prescribed medications for chronic pain, the study found that doctors had a tendency to prescribe other medication they were not supposed to be on to subdue this pain.

• Stress: this is one of the most obvious reasons doctors would begin to abuse drugs. Most doctors experience a high level of stress in their professions, and some of them find it difficult to manage it without the help of drugs.

• Drug withdrawal: this is the final step in the relative process of an addiction. Once they are hooked, there is no going back and will have to keep prescribing drugs to get through the withdrawals they have every so often. Since the withdrawal symptoms of some drugs can range from extremely uncomfortable to life-threatening, many doctors in the study admitted to treating these withdrawal symptoms with illegally obtained prescription medications.

This shows you just how susceptible some of the most knowledgable people in the drug field are to their own drugs. Remember that even working professionals become addicted. If doctors are turning to these medications for help while knowing the dire consequences, imagine the chances of another type of professional with half the knowledge of a doctor who turn to drug abuse. Doctors see the dangers of these drugs every day and still decide to take them, this gives people outside this profession that are still in a high stress situation much less of a chance in saying no to drugs.

I hope this post showed you some of the main reasons why people turn to drugs, and how we should never judge a book by its cover. Just because someone is in a highly respected position from years of work, doesn’t mean they will always be in their most stable mind at that stage in time

There are a few signs that someone has an opioid addiction. It is important for family members to recognize some of these signs so that they can step in before their loved one’s addiction gets worse. On top of this, it is helpful to know what symptoms someone would display if they have been abusing opioids. This way you can tell if an addiction is starting and can help before it is too late.

Fighting an opioid addiction is one of the toughest uphill battles someone can go through. The withdrawal symptoms can be arduous and a lengthy process to overcome. However, with the right direction and support, it is very possible to get someone back on the right track in life in a short amount of time.

What are opioids used for?

Before we start to discuss some of the signs and symptoms, I first want to talk about what an opioid is and what its primary use is. Opioids are a class of drugs that can include the illegal drug heroin, along with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and pain relievers that are available legally by prescription. Even though many people feel safe trusting their doctors, they do not understand the danger they are putting themselves in when they start on a course of opioid treatment. These drugs are very addictive and can be very hard to stop taking when you start. Many athletes can become hooked on these drugs; they take them to numb the pain so they can play their next game, and before they know it, they are addicted to those drugs regardless of if they have pain or not. This is why opioids can be so dangerous to the public and knowing the signs and symptoms that someone can convey while taking these drugs is important.

Signs and symptoms of opioid use

There are a few signs someone can display when they are suffering from an opioid addiction. Firstly, it is important to note if the person in question has been prescribed opioids in the recent past. If this is the case, it is imperative to keep an eye out for signs that they are still using the drug after their prescribed period is over.

One first sign to look out for is a rise in the levels of their anxiety on a daily basis. Do they seem more on edge than usual? If this is the case, the answer may be that they are still using medication that they shouldn’t be. This sign is part of the withdrawal process. Their addicted body is feeling uncomfortable as they have not had the dose it wants in a while. Therefore, their anxiety becomes higher than normal as they stress about when they can take their next dose.

Another tell-tale sign that someone is abusing opioids is that they become more secretive in nature about their habits. Typical eating and sleeping habits can be thrown off by taking these drugs, so that you could find that your family member is sneaking around your house at 3am as they cannot sleep right. This is definitely an irregularity in a normal pattern that you want to look out for, as it can be the start of finding help for the drug abuser.

Some of the symptoms that stem from using opioids start with a change in personality. Some people may become very aggressive at times and very subdued at other times. Sudden mood swings are normal for someone being controlled by a drug addiction in their life. They feel like they need the drug to function; therefore, they have massive mood swings depending on when the last dose came and when the next dose is coming. Along with this, the drugs can have an effect on the mind and body making people act and behave a certain way that they are not used to at all.

The dangers of opioids

As with all drugs, many dangers come with an addiction, the first being that of a deadly overdose. All it takes is for one batch to be wrong or someone to accidentally take too many pills in one time and it could be a life ending disaster. This is a leading cause of death in the drug world and is a major reason why people should tread lightly before taking drugs of any kind. Another reason is the way the drugs make people feel and what they make them do. It can be a slow death of the mind which can then lead the body to slowly shutting down. Dying from drug abuse is one of the worst ways to die and something no one should have to suffer through. This is why it is so important for people to help their friends and family whenever they can. Stay alert for the major signs and symptoms of drug abuse so you can know when to step in if needed.