If you’re worried about your loved one’s heroin addiction, it might be time to schedule a heroin intervention for them. During an intervention, friends, and family gather to discuss your loved one’s addiction and offer actionable advice and solutions, as well as their support through the treatment process. Interventions can be professionally led or led by a family member. During these interventions, there’s no place for blame or belittingly, just facts about their behavior, how they’ve affected you, and why you believe they should seek treatment.
Your Loved One is Denying an Evident Problem
If you’ve recently discovered that your loved one has a heroin problem, but they continue to deny that their problem exists, this is a good sign that they need further help than what you can offer by yourself. It can be hard for drug addicts to recognize their own behavior, but holding an intervention can help you get through to them.
If your loved one continues to deny their heroin addiction, they’ll only continue to harm themselves and others, digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole and furthering their addiction.
They’re Exhibiting Destructive Behavior
Poor decision-making skills are one of the side effects of heroin use. Because of this, people who use heroin frequently might be destructive, causing damage to their own life and hurting the people around them simply by making the wrong decisions constantly. By intervening before your loved one can make any more bad decisions, you’re saving them from themselves, and saving the people around them from their potentially damaging behavior. If they’ve begun to exhibit dangerous or destructive behavior like excessive anger or violence, or they’re partaking in illegal activities, it’s time to have an intervention.
They Continuously Refuse Treatment
If your loved one fails to recognize that they have a problem with heroin, they’ve probably refused your suggestion to seek treatment on more than a few occasions. Unfortunately, you can’t force people to go to treatment (in most states, however, there are some circumstances where this isn’t true), so sometimes intervention is required to get through to them. When people refuse treatment, it’s often because they don’t realize that they’re in so deep, they don’t realize that their personality has changed or that their behaviors have changed. They may not even realize that they have an addiction. Using heroin might feel like second nature. However, an intervention can help them realize that they have an addiction that requires treatment.
They’re Lying to You and Others
Lying is a huge telltale sign that something is going on with your loved one. While lying doesn’t always mean drug abuse, drug abuse almost always includes lying. Whether they’re lying about where they’re going, who they’re hanging out with, what they’re spending their money on, or how much heroin they’ve been using, constant lying is a huge sign that you should have an intervention for your friend or loved one.
For heroin addicts, lying might feel like second nature. Many heroin addicts lie because they know if they don’t, they’ll be caught, and they don’t want to have to deal with the repercussions. Many lie because they know that they’ll be judged for their actions. But most lie because they know what they’re doing is wrong, even if that’s just a deep-down feeling.
Their Heroin Usage is Damaging Their Health
Heroin can cause both short and long-term damage to one’s health. If you’re starting to recognize symptoms of deteriorating health in your friend or loved one, it might be time to step in and hold an intervention. Holding an intervention at this stage can help showcase the physical damage that they’re doing to their health and how it will continue to degrade their body if they continue to use it. You can use this time to point out the damage that’s already been done as well as the damage that could continue to occur if they choose to keep using heroin.
During this time, you should also talk about treatment options and how these options can help them feel better both mentally and physically. While heroin takes a huge toll on the body physically, it can also cause mental damage as well, increasing depression, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms. However, treatment can help get your loved one’s mental health back on track.
You Need Relief
It’s okay to admit when you’ve had enough. Trying to help someone through heroin addiction can be difficult and draining. It can be hard to remain a positive and supportive force in someone’s life, especially when they’re barely listening to you and lying to you about their habits. If you’re trying to help someone through an addiction, you have to take care of yourself too. If you’ve found that their addiction is affecting you too much and your own mental health is suffering because of it, it’s time to hold an intervention. By holding an intervention, you can take some of the stress off yourself and put it into the hands of a professional or group.
Once your loved one receives treatment for their addiction, you won’t have to worry as much about what they’re doing and where they are, and if they’re okay. This will make it a lot easier for you to take care of yourself.
Schedule a Heroin Intervention and Get Your Loved One the Treatment They Need
If you’re thinking about scheduling a heroin intervention for your loved one, now’s the time to get started. You can choose to hold the intervention on your own or hire a professional to organize and lead it for you. Both have their own pros and cons.
Remember, it’s important to bring actionable advice to the intervention with you, such as treatment centers that are accepting patients. Asheville Recovery Center offers a variety of different treatment programs for heroin addiction, including partial hospitalization, outpatient, and detox referral services. To learn more about our programs and how we can help your loved one get and stay sober, call us today.
