Almost all people who do interventions say that and statistically, 85% of the people who have a well planned intervention do go to treatment. When doing a formal intervention you have to be comfortable with not being in control of the outcome.

As long as the person is breathing there is hope for that person to change. But often people wait to intervene as a last resort. We do not have to wait to do intervention on someone's addiction. We have developed intervention methods that can be matched with the severity of the problem. There has never been one solution that works for everyone or every situation.

Part of a well planned intervention service is to help identify how severe the problem is, what the problem might be, and what the most appropriate course of action is warranted. Interventions can be done for people with depression, mental health issues, eating disorders, gambling, sexual addiction, internet addiction, etc.

Intervention needs to be seen as a process. Getting someone into treatment is just the beginning. Everyone needs to learn how to be in the recovery process. Sometimes the addicted individual does not get help right away but because the people around them are getting help and begin to stop enabling the addict, the addict must change. A successful intervention is one that changes the system supporting the addicted behavior. The message becomes "There is nothing we won't do to help you get better". "We won't help you use any longer."

A formal intervention should be done when someone you are concerned about is in denial, losing control, or a possible danger to themselves or others. Most family members become discouraged because all their efforts have failed. The most frustrating is when the person they are concerned about seems to get better for a short period of time only to keep getting worse. This is because addiction is a progressive, often fatal disease.

Interventions are most successful when the influential people in the addict's life are included. This can be complicated especially when the influential people are addicted themselves. Part of the intervention planning process is to look at who should be involved in the process. This is yet another reason to have someone help you with this process. A trained professional can help others see how much they can help in this process and alleviate their fears about being involved. You want to involve those who are most affected by the addict's use and together they are most likely to have a positive impact on the addict's decision to enter treatment. Influential people can be family, extended family, friends, colleagues or co-workers. The optimal number of participants who should be included in the intervention process is five to eight people.

You can attempt an intervention on your own. The rate of success is much less because of several factors. The most important factor in having someone help you with the intervention process is their ability to remain objective. Interventions can be a very complex and delicate matter. The use of a trained professional to do a carefully planned intervention increases the likelihood of success, and helps maintain the importance of the relationships at stake. On average 90% of our formal interventions are successful. It is even higher if the family follows through changing the enabling system.

The power of a formal intervention is getting the influential people together and giving a the same message to the addicted individual. Addicts survive by engaging the influential people separately. It is amazing how much comes to light when participants come together and share the knowledge they have about the addicted person's behaviors.

Getting the person to an intervention and getting them to listen is crucial. Part of the planning process is to deal with that issue.

Research shows that it does not matter how people enter treatment. What matters most is how they respond to the treatment process. In any part of the recovery process it will become important for the addicted individual to begin developing internal motivation and start taking responsibility for themselves and their addiction.

Could happen especially if you use force to get someone into treatment, but when you treat someone with dignity and respect more often than not the addicted person will thank you.