When a loved one’s cocaine addiction spirals out of control, you may need to stage an intervention to help them enter a rehabilitation facility. In rehab, medical professionals treat the physical addiction, while mental health counselors treat the psychological addiction and underlying problems.
This approach, known as dual diagnosis, treats both the physical addiction and the underlying psychiatric disorder that causes the addictive behavior. So before you reach the point of knowing that you need to intervene with your loved one, you need to see if they have a cocaine addiction.
How do you know if they regularly use cocaine?
Most addicts don’t openly use coke in front of non-users. Instead, addicts use or party with other addicts. The same is typically true of any addictive substance and its abusers – alcohol, meth, heroin, etc. Those who abuse the drug know others who abuse the drug. Because you won’t typically see them use cocaine, you need to recognize the signs of abuse. Study and consider these most likely indicators of cocaine abuse:
- Physical changes include a bloody nose, runny nose without allergies or cold, hoarse or scratchy throat, nausea, stomach pain, quickened heartbeat, or shaking.
- Some abusers decline to eat, causing them to drop weight while using it.
- Glassy eyes or bloodshot eyes with dilated pupils.
- Lack of personal hygiene.
- Powdery cocaine sticks to their nose and mouth. A white powder residue in either spot signals recent use by snorting.
- A thermal burn mark on their fingertips from holding a crack pipe. The burn mark may appear on their nasal tip instead.
- They may lack money, seemingly spending their paycheck on nothing since they have nothing tangible to show for it.
- They may steal from you or other family members or friends, selling off items to get money. This money they spend on more drugs.
- They seemingly develop a mood disorder marked by radical mood swings. They undertake risky activities like going to the “bad part of town” for errands or stealing from a retail store.
Planning the intervention
Once you notice these behaviors, you need to take action to curb the activity. You also need to get your loved one into rehab. This often requires intervention.
The term intervention describes a meeting between you and the loved one, including other concerned non-users/non-abusers of drugs. You should not involve a person who condones the use of illegal drugs. As long as they do not condone drug use, you should include their spouse, parents, best friends, etc. Also, consider including a professional in addiction treatment.
At this meeting, which might be a dinner or after-work coffee at home, you discuss in upfront terms the problem, and each person relates their observations without judgment. Rather than saying things like, “You’re ruining your life.,” you say something like, “Your drug use has adversely affected your [school, work, etc.] performance or grades, and I am concerned for your safety.” Statements such as these convey caring and provide approval of how the person was before drug use. Ironically, many people who use drugs, such as cocaine, think that they need the drugs to be something they weren’t. When you show approval for the person they already were, you promote confidence and reinforce your concern for their safety.
Prepare for the worst-case scenario. Many addicts can’t face their drug problem alone. They may need an ultimatum or may require court intervention. The latter describes a situation when you petition the court to mandate a stay in a mental health or addiction treatment facility. This may be as short as a 72-hour observation period, in which mental health professionals determine if the individual has actionable mental health defects or a 28-day rehab stay.
Before you organize a group intervention, speak to your loved one alone. In either case, choose a location, such as home, where they feel safe and protected. Ill-prepared interventions can fail, but approaching the situation correctly can result in your loved one regaining their health.
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