Interventions During the Holidays, Bring the Family Together
As the holidays approach, families with addicts are left with a difficult decision. Do they try tough love and tell the addict not to come to the holiday celebration, or do they allow the addict to join in the festivities and risk them ruining the celebration? If you find yourself in this dilemma, there is an answer. Interventions during the holidays serve as a prime opportunity.
Holidays are the best time to stage an intervention. Think about it. Holidays are when family members come together, even relatives that live far away make the trip back to see their loved ones. This is very similar to an intervention. Family members come together, to make a positive imprint in their loved one, who has an addiction. Even family members from different states fly in to help out with interventions.
With all of the relatives coming in for the holidays, get gives them a closer look at the situation at hand. Taking to someone over the phone and through text messages is completely different from seeing your nephew or niece 60 pounds lighter, not taking care of themselves, and becoming very distant, it is a shock, as well as an eye-opener. Having family members around that do not usually see the normal antics of the addicted family member, creates awareness and can shed new light on a situation. For example, if the addicted family member used to have a strong bond with an aunt or uncle, they have be able to break through the thought process of the addict and get them into treatment. Having a positive family member express their concerns to the addict may give them a push in the right direction.
Another reason interventions during the holidays are a good course of action are all of the feelings and behaviors that happen during the holidays. The behaviors are definitely a huge factor. When you think of holiday behavior, it almost always includes some form of drinking. Drinking eggnog. Drinking to ring in the New Year. With all of the parties and activities happening, there are many chances for the addict to get worse. Drunk driving increases drastically during the holidays. By having an intervention during the holidays, you will be able to help them start a better life and not end up in a horrible accident or even death.
The other factor is emotions. During the holidays, emotions tend to be at an all-time high. Whether it be depression, due to loneliness, anxiety due to everyone else around the addict seeming happier than the addict is, or mourning the loss of a loved one, holidays bring out the questioning of people’s behaviors and emotions. Emotions like these can send anyone into a downward spiral, but addicts are especially susceptible to them. These emotions serve as triggers to make them use drugs or drink.
Staging an intervention during the holidays is also a wise choice because the end of November till the end of December is a short amount of time between holidays, which helps to see the progress or the decline of the addict. Get a plan of action together with your family and call for help.