As a certified interventionist on the inspiring A&E television reality series Intervention, and the founder of Intervention911 (a national professional intervention service), Ken Seeley is the first to use his experience to define ‘rock bottom’ in his book “Face It and Fix It” to be released on May 5. He says the acronym “H.E.L.P.S.” will serve as a vital tool in spreading awareness about how hitting one of five types of rock bottom may actually improve the chances for a long-term recovery.

“Until addicts hit rock bottom, they are likely still in the mode in which they feel there is a benefit to returning to the addictive behavior,” says Seeley. “In my experience, in seeing what works in getting people to change a behavior for good, I’ve identified five types of rock bottom — Health, Emotional, Legal, Personal finance and Spiritual, or H.E.L.P.S. With some of these forms of rock bottom, the addict will see for himself that the only choice is to get help or die. In other cases, there are a few types of rock bottom that a professional interventionist and the addict’s family can help the person reach, in order to ensure the person is really ready to get better.”

H: Health Rock Bottom

The first type of rock bottom that H.E.L.P.S. stands for is a health condition. “Something physically happens to the individual that leads them to say, ‘I don’t want to live this way anymore,’” explains Seeley. Not everyone hits a health rock bottom. Seeley says that some individuals living with addiction might code in an emergency room and, on the way home, ask a loved to stop for alcohol or drugs because that wasn’t enough for the them. “For a lot of people, when they hit that physical component, something happens within their health; they hit a rock bottom and that’s enough.

“With any other disease out there, you would not wait for the natural progression. With diabetes, cancer, you’re not going to sit back and say, ‘Yeah, I have diabetes, but I’m not going to take my insulin because I’m going to wish it away, and it’s going to just dissipate.’ And then all of a sudden, you lose a leg. Of course you’re going to intervene and you’re going to do what’s necessary to get the treatment. With cancer, you do the same thing. You have a tumor, you have cancer, you get the tumor removed, and you go into chemotherapy and the treatment plan. This is the same exact thing we go in (with a person with addiction). Once you identify that an individual has a disease, you don’t wait for the natural progression. You intervene and you get them to the appropriate treatment facility and get them the care that they need.”

E: Emotional Rock Bottom

The E in H.E.L.P.S. stands for an emotional rock bottom. Seeley says this is the most common type of rock bottom during a professional intervention.

“We get as many people as we can who love and care about the addict, and we tell them what the disease is and how the addiction is affecting it — and we create an emotional rock bottom,” says Seeley. “A good example is when an addict chooses not to go to treatment or seek recovery. What the family members may do is change their behaviors and say, ‘Well, if you’re not going to get help, then I need to remove myself.’ It could mean they start the divorce process. If it’s a parent, we take the children away. So they hit an emotional rock bottom and they get the help necessary.”

Seeley says he explained this on the show when working with an addict who was a mother. “She ended up drinking and driving and coming home and not remembering how she got home — and she realized that she had her two kids in the back seat at the time when she was under the influence and in that blackout. Horrible, right? And that was enough for that mother to realize that she needed to check herself into treatment.”

L: Legal Rock Bottom

Then there’s the legal form of rock bottom. “We’re very fortunate here in the United States where if somebody’s breaking the law or has drug or alcohol related offences, then the courts can mandate drug treatment. They put them into a drug program and give them that opportunity to hopefully get better and stop breaking the law. But there are some heavy consequences that come with that,” says Seeley. “When they don’t drug test negative and they don’t go to their group therapies, their A.A. meetings or 12-step meetings, after a couple of chances, the judge will likely put them in jail and see how they like that instead. So a legal rock bottom can actually help keep the person alive.”

P: Personal Financial Rock Bottom

The fourth type of rock bottom in Seeley’s H.E.L.P.S. definition is personal finances. This is one type of rock bottom a professional interventionist and an addict’s loved ones can help the addict reach. “I don’t care if you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a licensed professional or if you’re homeless in the streets, there’s some way that you’re keeping your addiction alive financially,” explains Seeley. “We go in and we find out how that individual is paying to keep that addiction alive and we turn that off in some capacity. If it’s a licensed professional, we contact their licensing board and let them know that the person is suffering from the disease (of addiction). If it is a homeless person and the person is pan handling, one of the family members usually volunteers to cut that off. They can stand next to the person on the street corner and stop people from giving them money. So no matter where you are or how you’re keeping it alive financially, we work with the family on cutting that source off so there’s no way to keep the addiction alive.”

S: Spiritual Rock Bottom

The last type of rock bottom in Seeley’s H.E.L.P.S. is spiritual. He says every addict, every person in recovery, normally has to hit that type of rock bottom in order to achieve success. “The 12 steps of recovery, which most treatment facilities use out there, are spiritually based. So when the addict hits some form of a spiritual rock bottom, there will be a cry out for help,” says Seeley. “With [regards to] the health and the spiritual aspects of the H.E.L.P.S. rock bottoms, we can’t create those for the addict, but I do believe that when you conduct (the professional intervention) in a loving, respectful manner, that’s a spiritual experience in itself. Remember, these are not bad people, they’re sick people. They may do some bad things, but they are not bad. And so we want to give them respect and dignity to create the natural progression of the disease and turn it into a reality so they can get into the mindset of wanting to get better.”

For more information about the five types of rock bottom Seeley identifies with H.E.L.P.S., consult his book “Face It And Fix It” when it’s released nationally on May 5. In our next interview, Seeley will discuss another significant intervention-related acronym he developed: L.I.B.S: Life Imbalance Behaviors.