Do interventions really help? essay sample

Having an alcohol or drug addict in a family is a huge pressure for all members. Parents cannot stand and ignore what is happening with their child, and they always try to intervene. Intervention can be the only way for an addict to feel that they need help. In most cases, young addicts do not realize that their behavior is damaging to their loved ones and refuse to confess that they have problems with substances. Naturally, if told off by parents, teenagers try to isolate from them as much as possible. Running away from home or spending much of their time elsewhere, addicts exacerbate their dependence even more. At a certain point, intervention is the only option that can save a person from complete degradation.

It is really problematic to measure the efficacy of interventions, because they are not necessarily tied to a positive outcome. If the family intervenes, an addict is more likely to agree on treatment. However, youngsters frequently decline help offered by their parents. The latter cannot always manage to persuade their child in the rightfulness of their decisions by choosing a wrong tactics of intervention.

To make intervention more effective, parents shall make an addict feel their destructive impact. As young people find it difficult to face the reality, parents shall let them see it with their own eyes. It will be useful to be specific – children expect parents to lecture them instead of highlighting actual damage of their actions. Instead of empty lecturing, parents shall take a possible solution and offer it to an addict.