What is an “intervention” in behavioral addiction?
An intervention is a outgrowth of what’s called the Johnson Model of Addiction or the Johnson Model of Treatment. It was developed about 45 years ago. Basically, there’s an assumption in an intervention that the individual is diseased and therefore, does not know what they say or does not know what they do. Intervention is usually orchestrated by a trained professional in intervention processes where they will orchestrate the close family members, close business people, friends—where they will come in and sort of like surprise the addict and confront them with issues revolving around their behavior. Post that and, ideally in the intervention model, the individual is willing and able to immediately go directly to an inpatient facility. Immediately. There’s usually no postponement, and that’s usually set up even before the intervention. So a professional comes in, has a couple of sessions with the families and his friends, and then it’s sort of like a surprise party where they come in, a
