Enlisting the help of a specialized interventionist may be useful when a family member has a serious problem with alcohol and refuses to get treatment. Relatives and sometimes friends meet with the loved one to discuss the person’s alcohol usage and explain why they are so concerned. The substance abuse intervention specialist helps convince the individual to begin treatment.
Understanding Physical Dependence
When someone has been drinking heavily every night for a long time, quitting will likely be difficult. If the person has become physically dependent on alcohol, the first step must be a medically supervised detoxification program. Physical dependence occurs when there is always alcohol in the person’s system, hence Minnesota alcohol interventions are needed.
Someone who drinks for a couple of hours every night typically isn’t physically dependent. In general, the human body requires about one hour to process one unit of alcohol. If an individual drinks seven or eight shots of liquor or 12-oz. cans of beer in two or three hours and goes to bed at 11 p.m., the alcohol should clear the body sometime in the morning.
During the Intervention
During the substance abuse intervention, participants may focus on several factors they see causing problems in their loved one’s life. They might talk about missing work and going to work hung over. Frequent fights between a married couple are a sign of trouble. The children may feel the parent is untrustworthy because of broken promises and unpredictability. Excessive spending on alcohol could be causing a strain on the household budget.
Information about intervention specialist organization Drew Horowitz & Associates, LLC.
