When is it time for intervention?
When is it time for intervention?
Intervention: A Bridge that Supports Us When We’ve Reached Our Limit.
When caring for a loved one, who is suffering as a result of trauma, low self esteem, depression or anxiety, knowing when it’s time to seek professional help is important. No doubt we can help our loved one, but there are follow-up questions, once the “can I help?” question is answered in the affirmative.
The next and most important question is, “what are alternatives to me handling this on my own?” Then, considering the alternatives ask, “am I in the best position to do this? or is there someone else that is in a better position to do this?” Next, we want to consider and ask professionals working in the field, for their opinion, as to the best level of our involvement and their involvement.
When a family member plays the role of therapist for another family member, it’s taxing both the giver and the receiver, and can be fatal to the relationship. It is extremely difficult for an emotionally involved person to provide therapeutic services to a person suffering and remain neutral and objective, because the person offering the help is a part of the receiver’s life and the state of mind of the patient often directly affects the caregivers quality of life.
We need to consider that we may do more harm than good, if we continue this quest to cure our loved one. For example, with trauma related issues, there is the risk of causing a second trauma for the person suffering, if the person is guided into reliving the trauma, without the support of a well trained therapist who can work with the person without emotionally reacting.
Professional therapy works because the caregiver is, for the most part, emotionally detached from the person suffering and independent from the situation. Such detachment is essential for objective analysis and advice and for reducing the risk of the caregiver suffering as a result of the process. Also, there is a sense of accountability that is present in a patient-caregiver relationship. Often accountability is one of the issues between family members, and so this aspect of therapy is absent in the case of a close family member acting as a therapist.
Intervention is a bridge that can help when our ability to assist another person, has reached its limits. When we hear ourselves saying, to ourselves or aloud, “if we can’t resolve this now, we’re going to need to get someone to help us,” or “I just don’t think I can help you any more,” it’s time to bring in the bridge-makers, a.k.a. outside intervention.
Finally, we want to consider, why take the long treacherous path down into the deep, dark chasm, when there are so many bridges waiting to support us and our loved ones. Choosing the bridge (that is, intervention) is not “giving up,” it’s ___________________.
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