Re: Interventions
Date: August 18, 2006 18:34
If nothing else, interventions definitely do work in the short term -- i.e. like in the situation described by ChrisM above, it got the guy out of the hotel and away from his immediate environment and whatever people or situations were enabling him at that moment. That alone could have saved his life, who knows what would have happened to him if he kept on going with a major drug binge for another few weeks or months. Whether or not interventions "stick" in the long haul is a much more complicated issue, but in the immediate situation like the addicted friend holed up in the hotel described above, it obviously made a big difference. Or by contrast, in the famous case of Kurt Cobain, where there was no meaningful intervention, and look what wound up happening to him. Not to cast blame, or bring up an old story, but I always felt like if they had taken control and gone in there as a group -- friends, family, band, record company, management -- and gone to Cobain's house and gotten him out, sent him to some heavily-supervised psychiatric treatment and rehab in Hawaii or Europe or something, the whole thing would have ended differently and possibly prevented his suicide. (No comments about Cobain's music or personality necessary, I'm just talking about the personal situation.) So in drastic times, I'd say it's definitely better to do something then not to do it.