Quote:
Originally Posted by Martian
Talking her into getting help isn't likely to do much good. You can try if you want, but interventions are usually for those intervening, rather than the one being intervened.
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After being professionally involved with countless interventions over nearly a 20 year period I'd have to say I completely agree with you here. I facilitated one intervention where the lady explained she really didn't drink much and her family and friends had it completely wrong. Her sister pointed out she could smell alcohol on her breath at the moment and it was 10am. The lady in question quickly said "Oh, I know what happened. I had apple juice with breakfast, it must have fermented in my stomach." She said that with a completely straight face. Of course no one bought it. But at least after the meeting they knew they'd made an effort and at least felt better about that. Within six months this 32 yr old lady was dead having walked into oncoming traffic wearing only a pair of panties. The bar she's been drinking at demanded she leave when she started talking off her clothing.
I had another man I was working with, the father of someone on my caseload. His son told me he drank all the time and was abusive. I talked to him and he said "Well I used to drink back when I was in the Army. Since then I've cut way back. A beer or two here and there." This sounded a lot like what I did after leaving the Navy. I started to leave and it dawned on me to ask how long was he in the Army and when did he get out. "I did the full 30, got out late last month." So he drank hard for 30 years but in the last two or three weeks he got it under control? We set up an intervention shortly after that conversation. Again he denied there was a problem. He ended up living on a run down fishing boat with no motor tied to a pier in Tillammok Bay, Or. He died on that boat, I always assumed liver failure.
Almost always the family feels better, but the results are near nil, IMHO. I'm sure some work. But I'd say the vast majority do not.