Substance abuse professionals can prove to be powerful allies in your struggle to help the substance abuser in your life. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its members abide by principles which preclude them from providing medical or therapeutic services which can be extremely important to the recovery of alcoholics/addicts. AA's eighth principle states that AA is to remain a non-professional organization. What this means is that AA focuses on what it can do best which is to provide counseling and support to aid in the recovery process. And they allow medical and therapeutic professionals to do what they do best. And the two shall never mix.

There's always a chance that the crisis may require you to seek professional help with an alcoholic/addict. For example, the substance abusers erratic behavior could result in violence or injury either to the alcoholic/ addict or to a close friend or relative. At that point, the best advice is to seek professional help.

If you foresee this as a highly probable occurrence you may want to get into crisis prevention mode through an intervention. One of the special methods commonly used by professionals to start the alcoholic/addict on the road to recovery is an intervention.

Intervention is an effective technique pioneered by Vernon Johnson who refused to accept the widely accepted view that recovery could began only after the alcoholic/addict had hit rock bottom. In the 1960s, Dr. Johnson did a study of over 200 alcoholics to determine what had caused the alcoholics to begin recovery. The answer turned out to be crises. At some point many alcoholics/addicts experienced a crisis of their own creation so bad that they were literally shocked in seeking help for their addiction.

The results of this study hatched an idea that could possibly prevent the most important people in the alcoholic/addicts life from having to endure years of pain and suffering until the alcoholic/addict finally hit rock bottom. If these people could "intervene" they might be able to stage a crisis that breaks through the alcoholic/addicts denial and puts them on the road to recovery. This staged crisis is called an Intervention.

If you are considering an intervention, you would be wise to seek the help of a counselor skilled in intervention. You should begin by learning about an intervention and how it should be run in short working sessions with the intervention counselor you choose. The basic premise of an intervention is to arrange a gathering of people important in the alcoholic/addict's life where everyone is aware of what's going on except the alcoholic/addict who is typically surprised by the intervention and sees it as a crisis. It is highly recommended that the intervention be sprung on the unsuspecting alcoholic/addict at a time when he or she is sober to achieve the best results.