Guidance On Addictions And Their Prevention

At this stage, there is more significant social interaction with their environment, which favors establishing stronger ties with friends and colleagues, which leads them to have other figures that guide their actions. Current studies indicate that the onset of alcohol drinking is between 12-13 yearsThe beginning or entry route is usually alcohol later.

 The progression observed is towards marijuana in many cases, which is more significant the earlier the consumption.

Several explanations have been proposed for this progression in consumption:

patients with a family history of drinking a tool used by adolescents to “fit in” with a group of identical, or to better their level of socialization by allowing some disinhibition, or some cases as a resource to adapt to new or trouble experienced by the adolescent, such as separation of parents, adaptation to a new school, change of home, etc.

In addition, a large body of scientific research shows that the early onset of illicit drug use is associated with problematic drug use, impaired mental health, risky sexual behavior, and an increased likelihood of criminal behavior.

Therefore, our adolescents must learn to make choices about drugs and their high accessibility in our society, choosing between abstinence or drinking, and they must be informed about the consequences and effects of their substance consumption in a life stage as analytical as adolescence, where the personality of that individual is being formed.

Fundamental Points For The Prevention Of Consumption In Adolescents

The most significant risk of beginning drug use occurs in mid-to-late adolescence (from 15 years of age ), so this stage between 11 and 14 years is crucial in taking preventive actions and preventing your son’s drug experiments.

Risk factors leisure time and socializing with family, friends, and school are vital. Educators, parents, and professionals to be able to make preventive interventions that can provide resources to better the levels of protective factors in young people.

Among the measures that parents can implement to prevent drug use in their children are

Promote Self-Esteem

Parents must be attentive to how their children’s self-esteem develops from childhood. It is essential to accompany them, love them, understand them, and always communicate with them.

Measures must be taken to encourage the child to have a good concept of himself, which is a factor that has a significant impact on self-esteem.

A young person with a good self-image and a good sense of self-worth has less risk of resorting to drugs, while low self-esteem due to factors such as poor school performance is a cause that leads many young people to addiction.

Maintain Good Communication

Maintaining a good communication channel with parents is a way to reduce the fear and uncertainty of children in the face of all the changes that happen in their bodies and minds during adolescence.

Constant dialogue between parents and children is essential, but so is parental control at this stage of the adolescent’s life. Although children tend to shy away from their parents, the dialogue should foster an understanding between the parties to know what the child is doing at all times.

Extremely authoritarian or demanding parents can create tension in the relationship that leads their child to seek support or advice from others, which is not always convenient.

Encourage Responsible Behavior

It is imperative to provide values. The school and the family must teach and inculcate values ​​that adolescents must create as their own.

When adolescents have learned to respect the limits and rules set by their parents, they have a role model to follow and more responsible behavior.

In general, one limit is using substances that can harm them, such as drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol.

Know The Activities Your Child Does And Promote Leisure Activities

Although, at this stage, adolescents have many activities outside the home, we must know the adolescent’s environment. It is unnecessary to exercise exhaustive control over children, but we must know who their friends are, where they go, and their activities because we need to know how bad habits and customs can come into their lives. Creating good relationships between the peer group, family, and school is also essential to detect problems.

Fostering leisure activities between parents and children and between siblings and friends is essential to create leisure habits that encourage sports and various activities. With this, they keep busy and acquire stable routines.

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Talk About Drugs

Sometimes this can be a complex topic, but it must be done soon.

The adolescent needs complete information about tobacco and other drugs from school, institute, and home. Society, in general, must also educate and inform about the dangers posed by the repetitive use of these habits.

The best time to discuss this topic is when your child asks a question. However, any opportunity to raise the issue and talk openly about it should be taken.

Sometimes there may be biases about the effectual of substances in one direction or another. For this reason, it is crucial to provide correct information and always remember that a person’s goal is to have sufficient skills to face their environment and adapt to it adequately.

Drugs Bring Severe Consequences To The Individual’s Physical And Mental Health That Must Be Explained. 

We must also discuss the possibility that the child is offered drugs on the street or at school and that even his friends can do it. It is also possible that a stranger offers them to you without telling you it is a drug, so care must be taken when dealing with strangers.

And finally, it is vital to get in touch with professionals in the event of suspected or confirmed drug use, to assess the situation and carry out early intervention jointly.

 What Is The Role Of An Addiction Interventionist?

I do not tell anyone what they must do or stop doing; that is not my mission. That “hidden” objective that a large part of society wants that people do not abuse or use substances is inaccurate. I’m not here to end consumption. My role is to make the person who is addicted and wants to stop see that there is a way to achieve it, to achieve it.

But what happens most of the time that I meet addicted people? They don’t know anything about recovery. I tell them: “There is another new life, and if after half a year or a year after trying it, you want to continue consuming, you can, but do not harm at least those next to you. Because you are free, you can do what you want, but allow yourself to know there is a way to stop and then decide”.

I think that everyone should do what they want with their lives. Still, it hurts me that many people are suffering without knowing that there is an alternative, a way out, and that addiction can be stopped: you can prevent consuming and build a new way of living, and then you decide. Now, not everyone knows how to help the person who drinks. I propose: “This is something new that no one has explained; you can stop, and it’s done this way. Once you know and try it, do what you want with your life.

In most cases, the person who has used it and sees that there is a solution decides to try it. No one is so highly foolish or crazy not to want to do it. Even so, the result is only sometimes that the person stops because not everyone stops using. But my first goal is to let you know that there are alternatives and to try the recovery process. Then, do what you want with your life.

Just as addiction intervention works with the addicted person so that they understand that they cannot harm the family, it also prepares this environment to prevent the addicted person’s habits from harming or harming them.

What Are The Steps Of An Intervention?

– The first step in the intervention is to contact the family and tell me about the situation they are currently experiencing, in general, and particularly about the addicted person. As a Professional interventionist, I need to know how this moment has been reached and in what situation each member concerns the person suffering from the disease.

In that meeting, they talked to me about what they see, the addicted person, and their day-to-day experiences regarding their family member’s illness.

Once I have put myself in the situation, the second step is to start the intervention work. I create a dialogue with the person who suffers from addiction. First, I listen to her to understand what is happening in her life. Once it is expressed, I directly move towards awareness.

I work on aspects such as what are the ideas that place them in a situation of consumption, and I stop to analyze with the person where the flaws of those ideas lie: why they are not having a happy life with all that process of addiction, of compulsive consumption.…

 How Long Does An Intervention Last Until The Person Realizes They Need Treatment?

– The average number of intervention cases in addictions is usually between 5 and 8 days. But the time that the process lasts depends a lot on the person’s current situation and addiction.

I have had cases in which the result has been speedy, that in an afternoon or four hours, he has reconsidered, and the next day, I have accompanied him to the place where he had to do the treatment. This has been the fastest intervention I have conducted: four hours. I remember a boy who came across his partner, who had already gone through a detoxification center and tried other methods. However, I had yet to explain what I made him see.

His words were literal; he said, “Nobody had given me that approach; what you are telling me has nothing to do with what I had seen.” Then he told me: “Yes, yes, of course, tomorrow we are going to the treatment center.” It was automatic; the next day, the process began.

It was assumed that he had been with other professionals, but the person’s response changes a lot depending on the point of view you give him of his illness and his chances of recovery.

The most extended addiction intervention case I conducted was with an alcoholic, a 56-year-old man. I was working for almost three weeks with him. I was drunk for 15 days because I was drunk nearly half the time. The process was slower; he even accompanied him to the bar to drink. And he said, “Okay, shall we go home?” I told him: “No, we’re not leaving; you have another one: I want to know how you drink. You don’t have to cover yourself now in front of me.”

How Do The Conversations And Situations Occur With Addicted People During An Intervention?

– Some moments and situations are anecdotal. And, of course, there are conflicts since not everything is rosy: intervention work presents its dangers. But not all cases are like that because they never see me as a threat; I will not fight or confront anyone as an interventionist. Yes, I have had challenging situations, but they have passed quickly.

These more complex situations usually occur at the beginning of the intervention when the person does not know what they want to achieve. However, they can also happen when they realize they have to change their life when they understand what I paint in that scenario.

They have insulted, spit on, bitten, and threatened me … yes, there are delicate situations. On one occasion, I had to stop on the highway four times on the way to treatment for a patient to get a flat tire at a gas station. He threw himself there for 40 minutes, and I was behind so there would be no problems with the person he was serving to prevent him from leaving blood in the bathroom… My job was to take care of him to achieve the goal: for him to enter.

On another occasion, a 39-year-old man who had a scrapped car at home intervenes, so you can see the degree of deterioration and marginality in which this person lived. To get into the house, he had to jump over the engine shaft of a BMW, and in the living room, he had seats. Sometimes I say: “Holy shit, what am I getting myself into” or “How am I going to get out of here?”. A 17-year-old boy also confronted me, but when he realized he was serious, he didn’t move on.

Now, it is not usually normal for something more severe than that to happen because there also comes a time when I stop to see if I am going to be in danger or if the person is, So I take a step back.

And I also have some more straightforward interventions, where I talk to the person for four or five days, and they fully understand that they need treatment. I give him a point of view that no one around him could give him, and there is no significant conflict: he neither insults nor threatens me, and he even ends up thanking me.…

What To Do When Our Relative Denies His Addiction?

A family interventionist in addictions executes a therapeutic strategy for cases where the addicted person denies the disease

The Work Of A Family Interventionist Consists Of Five Stages :

  1. Analysis of the family situation
  2. Psychoeducation of the disease of addiction in the environment of the addicted person
  3. Decoding emotions concerning the disease
  4. Introduction of communication techniques toward the addicted person
  5. Follow-up of the family environment after the patient’s admission.

In general, denial is one of the most common behavior patterns in this disease. Addicted people do not recognize that they have a problem; quite the contrary: they think that the whole world is against them and sometimes adopt the role of social victims. Thus, the typical reactions of an addict who denies her disease are:

  • They tend to answer evasively.
  • They don’t take responsibility for what happens to them.
  • And they may try to blame the rest of their problems.

When they feel pressured, they react by attacking or defending themselves against what they see as attacks by the family. This generates situations of tension and confrontations. Problems that, due to the discomfort in the family due to addiction, easily lead to violent and unpleasant episodes.

The Work Of The Family Interventionist In Addictions In The Face Of Denial

On other occasions, when people with an addiction problem reject the help offered, they have the following reactions:

  • They are irritable, and it isn’t easy to talk to them
  • They quickly change their minds
  • they are defensive
  • Can’t speak to them
  • They deny that there is or have a problem
  • And they downplay the matter

How do you downplay your addiction? The most heard phrases when you want to help a family member with addiction are usually:

  1. “My case is not serious enough for that.”
  2. “It’s not that bad.”
  3. “Calm down, I’m in control.”
  4. “I don’t have any problem, and I consume because I want to”
  5. “I leave it whenever I want.”

For families and the person himself, it is difficult to accept that there is a problem and that they do not know how to deal with it. The emotions that usually accompany these situations in which you want to help a family member with addiction and cannot are usually:

  • shame,
  • blame,
  • despair,
  • frustration,
  • impotence,
  • Rage,
  • loss of confidence,
  • hopelessness,
  • sadness…

Intervention Service To Help The Addicted Family Member

We offer an intervention counseling and orientation service to the family environment of the person with addiction problems who do not recognize their situation as problematic and do not want help.

Families play a crucial role and are an essential factor in a person’s recovery. There is no doubt that addiction is a problem that affects the person who suffers from it and their environment, which causes a lot of emotional and psychological wear and tear on interpersonal relationships. Situations caused by consumption cause much suffering and impotence to families. And they cause changes and consequences in their relationships. We know there is a lack of knowledge about how to act and manage this reality.

To help your family member in the best possible way, you need to have information.

. How Do We Help You If You Are A Relative Of An Addicted Person?

  • We hear you
  • We give you tools to manage problems,
  • We offer you tools to redirect and improve the situation.

 4 Stages Of The Family Interventionist In Addictions

Our team of psychologists and therapists specialized in addictions carry out an exhaustive study of the family situation.

It is a joint work where the therapeutic team and the relatives agree on an effective action and intervention plan. A strategy that generates changes in the family situation so that, consequently, the behavior of the addicted person and their predisposition to receive treatment can change.

First Part Of The Family Intervention In Addictions

The first part of the intervention consists of collecting information from the family’s history. With her, we carry out psychoeducation on the disease :

  • what is addiction
  • how does it work,
  • the causes that can favor this problem,
  • what factors influence consumption
  • and what triggers generate stress and discomfort…

That is to say: we help to understand the disease, its functioning, and how it manifests itself.

Second Part Of The Family Interventionist In Addictions

The second part analyzes the current family situation, the difficulties, fears, and barriers that family members present in their relationship with the addicted family member.

Third-Party Of The Family Interventionist In Addictions

The third part of the process is about making changes that facilitate the entry of the person with an addiction to listening and considering the possibility of accepting the help offeredTo do this, they work on skills to face difficulties and more effective forms of communication. In this sense, they analyze and decode feelings of guilt, fears, and insecuritiesFrom here, they can set limits and consequences for the harmful acts of the person with addiction.

Fourth Stage Of The Strategy Of The Family Interventionist In Addictions

Lastly, following up after the patient is admitted is essential and advisable. This shows how the patient has adapted and how “attached” they are to the center where they have been revealed. And the difficulties that he may present in the treatment. Also, how the families manage the process and reinforce the maintenance of the established changes.