Captured

It is important to understand that a person suffering fromaddictionis essentially captured by the mental addictive forces inside. They feel conflicting emotions and have conflicting thoughts about their problem. In an addict's private moments of despair he knows that he needs help, but the addicted part of him regains control and the thoughts change. He says to himself "I don't need help, I don't need to change. I can beat this thing, anyway everybody is making too much of all this - it's not that bad." He might even be saying "Oh yes I know I need help but I will do it my way." And we watch and wait while he has worsening failed lunges at 'doing it his way'.

Are We Getting It Wrong?

Meanwhile we all look on in confusion and feel hopeless that our attempts to help are being rebuffed or rejected and his own efforts are failing miserably - we wonder sometime if our own sanity is in question. Maybe it's me who is getting this wrong; perhaps I am just overreacting. So what can we possibly do? We can wait in the hope that the addict will wake up to the severity of the situation; maybe they will spontaneously get better. But how long will that take to happen, indeed will it ever happen and what kind of damage will we all have to suffer before this vague moment of truth happens?

Lost and in Need of Help

I have no wish to be dramatic in saying that men and women have died trying to control their addictions and much has been lost trying to prove that hey, I'm not really that badly addicted, I can beat this beast. Often individuals stumble around on the periphery of the world of recovery somehow hoping that will power and intellect will change everything, but most often it never does. What the poor suffering addict needs is proper professional help to find his or her way out of the maze that is mental/psychological addiction.

The Right Sort of Help

Now, I have to get a bit strict at this point and insist that if someone is going to benefit from help that it must be a qualified and experiencedAddiction Professional; not some general Psychotherapist, Counsellor, Psychologist or Psychiatrist. This may be the addict's only chance at recovery and in the wrong hands it could be worse than useless. After all; you wouldn't have brain surgery done by a Gynaecologist would you? There is a massive difference between the Addiction Specialist and the "I'll give it a go" therapist or Doctor.

Breaking the Deadlock

Instead of waiting and hoping that this addicted person will awaken from their trance state, we can take measures to assist them into appropriate treatment with an intervention. A professionally orchestrated intervention brings the family and those concerned individuals together to help bring the 'rock bottom' or 'moment of truth' up to meet the addict and ensure that they receive treatment earlier rather than later or never at all. In most cases following a successful intervention, the Client will be in appropriate Professional Treatment that day or the next. Once in Treatment the specialists can give the individual the chance of choosingrecoveryover continued struggle in pain with their addictions.