Patricia M. Pike CEO of CanAm Interventions & Associates Accessing professional help is the start of Healing!
We have wealth of professional knowledge and experience for the treatment of substance abuse disorders, mental health conditions and behavioral health. Ms. Pike has over 25 years working both in the United States and Canada.
Ms. Pike and her associate’s tailors our services to meet client and their family’s needs offering, interventions, case management, concierge in home detox, family coaching, treatment referrals, aftercare support and monitoring and testing, recovery companionship and travel support services.
We’re Ready to Help with Addiction and/or Mental Health Cases!
Is your loved one battling addiction, chronic pain, a mental health challenge, or a process disorder? Professionally interventions led by Patricia have a 92% success rate — meaning that the individual accepts treatment.
Watching an individual struggling with addiction and/or mental health cinditions can be one of the most painful and heart-wrenching experiences for a parent, family members and/or friends.
What To Expect During an Intervention
Because of the complexity of mental illness, it is incredibly important the intervention process is handled by a trained professional. It can be difficult to identify these disorders because many of them present overlapping symptoms – alternatively, substance abuse could mask telltale signs of a disorder. It’s also crucial for you to be aware that these interventions can be very emotionally charged.
Your loved one may not believe that they have a problem and may not have ever received a formal diagnosis. They also may have a previous treatment plan that they have chosen to ignore and could believe that they know what’s best for their health (even though you see real issues in their day-to-day lives). Therefore, CanAm Interventions recommend that mental health interventions taken place under the supervision of a trained facilitator.
Family Has a Major Roles in Mental Health Intervention
Mental health issues often go on for too long or don’t ever receive treatment because they require loved ones to identify the problem and the need for help. It often takes outside help to address mental health issues as a real problem.
Preventing mental health issues requires investing in early intervention programs and services at the earliest signs of a problem.
Studies show that many people who develop mental health disorders show symptoms by the age of 14. Waiting too long to take action to help a mental issue in your child can lead to crisis situations such as trouble with the law, dropping out of school, involvement with drugs, or suicide.
What is Codependency? Codependency is a set of maladaptive, compulsive behaviors learned by family members to survive in a family that is experiencing great emotional pain and stress. Click here for more information: reference from Mental Health America.
What is Enabling? Enabling behavior is born out of our instinct for love. It’s only natural to want to help someone that we love, but when it comes to certain problems -helping is like throwing a match on a pool of gas which is called enabling. Click here for more information: reference from Huff Post.
About Mental Health Conditions
Mental illnesses include many different conditions that vary in degree of severity, ranging from mild to moderate too severe. Mental illness, also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors
Any is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder and can vary in impact, ranging from no impairment to mild, moderate, and even severe impairment.
Serious Mental Health disorders is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. In 2020, there were an estimated 52.9 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States. Taken from: https://www.nimh.nih.gov
What is Addiction?
Addiction is the ultimate act of self-destruction, family devastation and selfishness, taking down everybody and everything in its path. Families with loved ones addicted to drugs know firsthand how devastating addicts’ behaviors can be on a family-wide level.
Substance Abuse Symptoms
The most common symptom of substance abuse is a change in a person’s behavior. Specific behavior changes vary from person to person. They depend on how severe the disorder is. Symptoms may include the following:
- Decreased motivation
- Using a drug more often
- Suddenly needing money
- Decreased or increased energy
- Using bigger amounts of a drug
- Suddenly gaining or losing weight
- Having a strong desire to use a drug
- Keeping a supply of a drug available
- Engaging in risky behavior while under the influence of a drug
- Missing work or school or having a sudden disinterest in work or school
- Changes in behavior, including being secretive about friends and activities
Addiction may be diagnosed as a substance abuse disorder (alcohol, legal drugs, illegal drugs), or a process addiction disorder (food, internet, sex, gambling, debt) or a mental health disorder (depression, bipolar, mania, borderline).
A person struggling with addiction is dealing with a complex brain disease that compels them to continue their drinking or substance abuse even when faced with damaging and harmful consequences. These substances directly impact the brain itself. The brain itself sends signals that the craving (of alcohol or drugs) is the most important focus.
Addiction And Denial
Denial is a common struggle with addiction. People may spend years denying how unhealthy and deep their habits have become. They find excuses that justify their behavior and ignore the advice of concerned loved ones watching them struggle with addiction.
Watching someone you love battle addiction is challenging. It’s painful to watch someone whose health continues to decline. It’s frustrating to find solutions for a person who doesn’t acknowledge the problem. Ultimately though, it can simply be exhausting as we feel drained emotionally, mentally, physically, and sometimes even spiritually. Family members and friends are often “tapped out” and may grow resentful of the person they are most concerned about; therefore, an interventionist can be crucial. Denial is a powerful tool used by the alcoholic/addict to allow the behavior to continue. Family members often use it too to hide the severity of the issue.
Causes Of Addiction
There is no single cause for addiction. Rather, many factors are involved including genetics, biology, social, psychological, and environmental factors are involved. There is no one personality type or defining characteristic that means a person is going to suffer from alcohol or substance abuse, though mental illness does often co-occur with addiction.
Chronic pain has increasingly become a factor with addiction. When a person feels pain for longer than 90 days it is considered chronic. This may lead to a prescription intended for pain management that leads to substance abuse.
Another important factor to consider is trauma. Trauma can take many different forms such as verbal, physical, and mental abuse, divorce, death, etc. Trauma created intense feelings of discomfort and may cause people to turn to substances like alcohol and/or drugs to become numb.
How To Help Someone with Addiction or Mental Health Conditions
Addiction is one of the most selfish behavioral disorders that can affect a person. As the disease or mental health conditions worsens, the untreated person is only out for him- or herself.
The Family Plays an Important Role in Recovery
When families call us for help, it’s not just to inquire about the drug or alcohol abuse of their loved ones. They’re also concerned about their own behavior and the harm they’re inflicting on themselves and others.
Family members play different roles that are determined by how much or how little they are being manipulated or affected, as well as by past experiences in their own lives.
Holding A Drug Intervention
Why wait when the odds are stacked against the addict? Neither the family nor the addict can pull out of this without professional intervention, help and guidance.
With an intervention, the family can determine when the bottom is met rather than waiting for the bottom to be reached. A professional intervention for drug addiction can help put those things back in control.
Is An Intervention Necessary?
When attempting to talk with someone in denial, it must be done while they are sober. The conversation may be difficult for them to have and hard for them to hear what you have to say. When under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they may be unfocused, inattentive, or just outright angry. When that happens, family members may become sidetracked or focused on other issues such as financial problems. The attention then shifts off the individual and conversations take wrong turns. These attempts are generally not productive steps toward recovery.
Professional interventionists have the training, experience, and knowledge needed to keep the focus on the person struggling with substance abuse disorders or mental health disorders. An interventionist will have spent time collecting information that gives a robust portrait of the identified loved one and will guide the intervention accordingly. There are several different approaches to an intervention and a trained interventionist will know the most beneficial way to work with each individual. The goal of an intervention is to help both families and those struggling with addiction find healing.
Questions Contact Us At:
1-800-638-1812 Toll Free Internationally
415-827-3725 Cell /Text
415-578-2875 Office