The holidays can be a difficult time for people suffering from addiction, what a better gift than to celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas with a loved one who has been struggling to stay sober.  How do you know when it is time for an intervention or better yet, how do you approach someone you love that you suspect is an alcoholic or drug addict? 

Alcohol is the second most addicting substance in our Nation and just because it is legal does not mean it is safe.  Another silent killer is prescription medication; both substances are highly addictive and fatal.  Contemplating a solution and looking for a way to help someone you love out of addiction is a difficult decision that has a simple solution.  Here are a set of questions to help make the decision that could potentially save the life of someone you love:

1. Have you ever lied to cover up someone else’s alcohol or drug use?
2. Do you ever threaten to leave a loved one for drinking or using drugs?
3. Have you been hurt, scared or embarrassed by a user’s behavior? 
4. Do you feel angry, confused, scared or depressed most of the time due to a loved ones drug or alcohol problem?

IF YOU HAVE ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THE ABOVE QUESTIONS, MOST LIKELY IT IS TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION!

HOW DOES AN INTERVENTION WORK?

The first step is to call our toll free number: 866-888-4911 and talk to one of our specialist to guide you through the intervention process.  From there we will help evaluate the appropriate steps to take towards getting your loved one into treatment.  Our qualified team will walk the family through steps towards a better life.

Meet with the family or person requesting the intervention to help develop a healthy set of boundaries and develop a bottom where the individual suffering from addiction will no longer be comfortable living in their disease.

Find a treatment center that can address all the addicts/alcoholics needs and give appropriate care to set the stage of developing a long lasting recovery.

Address the family to ensure everyone can stand by their healthy boundaries and provide a loving and supportive bottom line where the disease of addiction can no longer consume the functioning of every day life.

Drugs and alcohol are not the only addictions people suffer from: eating disorders, depression, OCD, hoarding, abusive relationships these issues can also have devastating and life altering results.

We also have an aftercare program to help the addict through their first year of recovery.  Remember treatment does equal recovery; they are two separate issues and need to be addressed in a manner that is appropriate for each individual.  After detoxing from drugs and alcohol the real work begins; after-treatment programs are not the same for everyone.  Addicts are unique and intelligent people; we address everyone with love and support.  Achieving a long, healthy sober life is our main goal at Intervention 911.

WHO DO I CALL FOR AN INTERVENTION? 

Call Intervention 911 any time, 24 hours a day toll free: 866-888-4911 or visit our website at:

www.intervention911.com, even if your not sure an intervention is the right thing to do, get a free consultation to help find a solution.  Get all of your questions answered, find relief and most of all….get into the solution with Intervention 911.

What a busy and exciting month of September it was!  I went to the Recovery Rally in New York where thousands were in attendance to celebrate and share a strong message of recovery.  We marched from NY City to Brooklyn via the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was a very uplifting and enriching experience.

President Obama proclaimed the month of September as “Recovery Month”.  What a wonderful and positive way to spread a strong message.  For those of us who have the blessing of recovery and those who are struggling in their addiction – Recovery Month is a powerful way to spread the message to people that overcoming their addictions can be a cause for celebration.

Recovery month brings addicts and alcoholics from all walks of life together, celebrating unity and strength in numbers.  The most amazing part of making the decision to surrender and get clean is that we don’t have to do it alone and we join a community of people that support, struggle and feel the same way.

Read this article I found in the Clarksdale Press Register.  If you think you might have problem with substances or alcohol, or maybe you are questioning the addiction of someone you love, feel free to contact us at: 866-888-4911 / www.intervention911.com. 

Article from: http://www.pressregister.com/articles/2009/09/24/news/doc4abb76cdcfe6b466605007.txt                                                                 Written by: Karen Casey

September is recovery month for addicts

By KAREN CASEY
Special to The Press Register

Thursday, September 24, 2009 8:52 AM CDT

Addiction wears many faces. They might be homeless alcoholics or millionaire doctors hooked on opiates; housewives eating themselves into oblivion or teenagers starving, exercising and cutting; or the rich and poor who have gambled their lives away.

“As technology has spread throughout the world, many have found themselves addicted,” says Barbara Joy, author of Easy Does It, Mom. All forms of addiction – including texting, cell phones, email, eBay, online pornography, online gambling, and blogging – are equally serious. It can be more difficult for those with seemingly “healthy” addictions such as working, cleaning, and exercising to separate the benefits from the problems caused by their obsessive behavior. However, any time the behavior is causing life problems, and the person can’t stop doing it, that person has crossed into addiction.

Addiction can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone regardless of age, gender, ethnic group, or financial status. “Given the right set of circumstances, I believe any person can become addicted to one thing or another,” offers Barb Rogers, author of 12 Steps That Can Save Your Life. Unfortunately, most people don’t seek help for their addictions until the consequences have stripped them of families, jobs, self-respect, and all hope.

Perhaps 20 percent of the population are addicts, and it’s said that each addict affects at least 6 other people, many of whom are codependents, or enablers. In a nutshell, co-dependency means a loss of self. If you care for rather than about an addict, you might well be a codependent, and your main job is to accept is that you simply cannot control the behavior of any one else, even if that person is a child or spouse. “The best-case scenario for a codependent is that he or she will learn enough self-love to stop believing it is necessary or possible to save another person from addiction or trouble of any kind,” asserts Rachael Brownell, author of Mommy Doesn’t Drink Here Anymore. Just as addicts need help in recovery, those who care for them may also be in need of a program and a support system such as al-anon.

 Codependents may be clear about the fact that a loved one is an addict, but

how can we tell if we, ourselves, are addicts? If we question our own behavior, and we feel anxiety or panic when we try to give it up, then we probably do have an addiction problem.

September is a key month for addicts and their loved ones, because it has been designated Recovery Month which is an annual observance that highlights and celebrates the societal benefits of substance abuse treatment. It promotes the message that recovery from substance abuse, in all its forms, is possible, and it provides a platform to celebrate those in recovery as well as those who serve them. Joy says, “It also serves to inform and educate the public on substance abuse as a national health crisis. As more people become educated, the stigma associated with addiction and treatment is reduced. When we have an accurate understanding of the disease, we are better able to support treatment programs, those who serve in the field, and those in need of treatment.”

Media coverage given to celebrity addicts, such as Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, and Anna Nicole Smith, may exacerbate the problem. When addicts don’t want to give up their addictions, they will grab onto any excuse or justification to continue. It’s easy for addicts to feel that, if the best personal doctors and private clinics in the world can’t help celebrity addicts, then there’s no hope. The truth is that recovery from addiction doesn’t require a celebrity’s wealth or status. “It’s an inside job, and nothing – not celebrity or money – can do it for us,” says Rogers.

 Recovery means ‘to recover one’s life,’ and there’s no single method that works for everyone. “Addicts in recovery believe that whatever works for them is the best program. For many people, recovery involves a 12-step program, but there are alternatives: behavior modification programs, one-on-one treatment programs, holistic addiction treatment centers, and the like,” Joy points out.

“You can get clean and sober without a 12-steps program, but you will be doing it alone. Why would you want to, when you could have a community to help you?” wonders Bucky Sinister, author of Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks & Weirdo’s.

One thing that most addicts are not seeking is a magic cure for their

addictions. “If there were a pill, or new therapy innovation that the

doctors promised me would cure my addictions so that I’d never have to

attend meetings, or work steps again, I’d have to say, ‘no, thank you.’ This

12-step journey is something I wouldn’t have missed for the world. Working

the steps has taken me to places within, and outside, myself where I never

imagined I would go. It’s brought me together with others whom I would

otherwise never have met. It’s helped me resolve my past issues, and shown

me a well-worn path that led me to a life beyond my wildest dreams. It was

the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” concludes Rogers, “and I would do

it all over again.”

Karen Casey is the author of “Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow.”

Visit her online at www.womens-spirituality.com.

Shortly after I came into AA, I heard about the “three things everybody should have” if they were to stay sober:  A sobriety date, a home group, and a sponsor.  I got all three pretty quickly and my life has been improving ever since.  I intend to write a little about each one in separate entries, but today, I want to address the importance of having a sponsor.

I’ve heard people say that the first 164 pages of the Big Book don’t say anything about sponsorship, but that’s because at the time it was written, there were only two groups; Akron and New York, and the purpose of the Book was to carry the message of AA to a world that, up until 1939, hadn’t heard yet about the ray of hope that had broken through the dark clouds of alcoholism.  There’s plenty about sponsorship in the personal stories in the second section of the Big Book and in other AA literature.  Taking on a sponsor represents a further surrender.

It’s an admission that, on our own, running our own show, we didn’t do such a good job and that perhaps, in the new sober life, we ought to be willing to listen to another voice.  The Big Book says, “The alcoholic is an extreme example of self will run riot, though he usually doesn’t think so.”   Having given up on self as the answer to my problems, and come into AA, I knew I was going to need a lot of help.  I admitted that I didn’t know a thing about staying clean and sober, so it only made sense that I allow someone to guide me through the !2 Steps, and through the rough patches that would inevitably come up as I began the scary, unfamiliar, journey to wholeness.

The basic requirement for a sponsor is that they themselves have a sobriety date, a home group and a sponsor, and that they have taken the 12 Steps.  Practical experience has shown that taking the !2 Steps alone, is just another “half measure.”  We need direction from another source.  A source with sober experience and knowledge of AA literature. Reading the Book with a sponsor is a revelation.  Alone, I might have missed many of the suggestions and instructions, which are vital to recovery.

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions says that even people of high spiritual development make a habit of consulting with others.  Maybe some day, I’ll be one of those people of “high spiritual development,” but in the meantime, I’ll continue to rely on the loving guidance of another sober alcoholic.  Someone who isn’t emotionally involved in my life that can provide another perspective on whatever problems and difficult situations that arise.  I often don’t see the way I can apply AA principles to these matters, but my sponsor always does.

About 12 years into my recovery — so that would be around 8 years ago — I was convinced I was working a strong program; maintaining contact with my sponsor, sponsoring others, going to meetings and being active in the Fellowship of AA. However, I also found myself in the depths of a relapse that I didn’t see coming. For those of you who know my story and never thought that relapse was part of it, you are partially right! I have never relapsed on drugs or alcohol; my relapse was of the spiritual variety. So, in the great tradition of AA — I’ll tell you what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like today.

What it Was Like

When I got sober in 1989, I fully surrendered to the idea that I was powerless over drugs and alcohol and to regain my sanity, I would have to pursue my recovery with the same gusto that I pursued my addiction. I quickly got a sponsor and began working the Steps. I took a variety of jobs to support myself, many of those in and around the recovery community. My life was indeed restored to sanity; or so I thought.

I lived in a great little 2 bedroom apartment near some of the best AA meetings in Los Angeles. I had colorful sober roommates and a wonderful dog, Onyx. From all outside appearances, I had been lifted up from the depths of alcohol and crystal meth addiction. The night that the demons started whispering in my ear, they came out of nowhere — or so I thought. I heard them say, “Ken, your life would be wonderful if only you were in a relationship.” “Ken, you will be fully happy if only you have a million dollars in the bank.” “Ken, you’re not good enough until you drive a Mercedes Benz.”

Although I was prepared to deal with whispers like, “One drink will make it all OK.” (I knew that meetings and the Fellowship would help me there.) I was vulnerable to demons of the spiritual variety. I responded NOT by going to more meetings or working with my sponsor, but by prowling the internet looking for love and throwing myself into my career. Of course, I now know that yearnings which rely on other people, places or things will create a deep level of dissatisfaction in anyone’s life!

What Happened

At my lowest point and in a deep depression, I considered taking my life. In fact, I went so far as to purchase a gun. Before making the ultimate mistake, I reached out to a doctor friend and asked for some medication to make the depression and dark unhappiness go away. He said he would consider giving me medication, but not before I meditated for one hour every day. He closely monitored me and coached me in developing my meditation skills. I prayed and meditated and established a contact with my Higher Power that was unlike any I experienced before. Soon, I was asking for more meditation — not medication and thus began my practice which goes on to this day.

What it’s Like Today

Through this process of daily prayer and meditation, I am generally at peace with myself and the world around me. I realize that any of the material wealth I accumulate or creature comforts I experience are fleeting and transitional. I fully embrace the spiritual nature of AA — and the Eleventh Step, in particular.

I meditate each morning and am quiet enough to hear (sometimes) what God’s plan is for me today. I pray before each intervention to have God guide me to say and do the right things for the alcoholic/addict and his family.

My life opened up and changed dramatically. But this time, it opened from the inside out. I am blessed today with wonderful relationship, a career in recovery that I adore and a life that I couldn’t have imagined in the dark days 8 years ago. Do I have bad days? Of course I do! Was I saddened when I lost Onyx? Yes, I was deeply saddened. The major difference between now and years ago is that I have the tools of prayer and meditation at work in my life on a daily basis.