cheers redux

intervention (noun) : an influencing force or act that occurs in order to modify a given state of affairs, such as a punch in the mouth of a person saying something you dislike [NOTE that this is not recommended in light of current laws against battery and the moral implications of what such an act says about you]
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To better explain a post from last week around going out and buying a drink for the alcoholic who will not get help for his/her problem, I wanted to delve into a process that usually precedes that purchase - the intervention.

Strictly speaking, an intervention can be any outside process that has the effect of modifying an individual's behavior, awareness or emotional state. There are less violent ways of creating an intervention than the aforementioned punch-in-the-mouth: you can walk away from the person speaking (or someone else can walk you away); you can take ten deep breaths (or someone can tell you to take ten deep breaths); you can talk with a therapist; you can apply the Dr Steve 'laugh it off' approach. Whatever works for you.

Sometimes a formal process of an intervention is used to break through denial on the part of a person with a serious disorder (usually drug or alcohol addiction). This represents a carefully orchestrated confrontation in which friends, family members and employers confront the person with his/her addiction and its negative impacts and consequences. The goal is to get the person to acknowledge that he/she has a problem and agree to treatment.

Alas, this goal is not often realized. Denial represents such a strong unconscious emotion and is such an effective defense mechanism that all attempts at intervention never really cause that person to acknowledge his/her problem. Worse, an intervention may result in the person acknowledging the problem but refusing the cure with more denial.

Rather than beat yourself up over the failure of this process, understanding more about denial and defense mechanisms may just help you accept the person and his/her problem.

So go buy that person a drink and be done with it.