More Than Hope

“This book was highly recommended to me by a social worker at the hospital that I work at, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to plan an intervention to save a friend/family member.”

~ Amazon review

“Having worked many years with mentally ill, homeless, drug-addicted clients I had no faith in the system. My daughter was lost to me, drowning in self-inflicted misery. A trusted friend recommended Steve’s book. It was the right read at the right time. Steve hooked me with his honesty, wisdom, truth and positivity. His lessons included guidance on planning, preparing for resistance and surprises, problem-solving on the fly and most importantly, laser focus on the goal.”

~ Social worker, Amazon purchase

“I am a friend of Steve Bruno and have witnessed him work on this book day and night for the better part of a year. Steve is as real on the pages as he is standing in front of you. He is honest, passionate, and sincere. I have witnessed Steve take on numerous interventions in the past and walk away with a 100% success rating of getting every person into rehab. How can this be? Steve expresses the secret to these successes in this very book.”

~ Family friend

“If you are just learning about the world of drug/alcohol interventions, if you have tried unsuccessfully to date, or if you have all but lost hope that your loved one can ever make it, PLEASE READ this book. It will take you on a journey of understanding how an intervention works and the absolute KEY ingredients to be successful (they exist!). It is raw and REAL, without fluff or lofty academic talk. Written by someone who knows the inside workings of the mind of an addict.”

~ S Schluter, M.D., Amazon review

From More Than Hope, Intervention Guidebook

From the chapter, Brute, Emotional Force

Crisis

1. a. A paroxysmal attack of pain, distress, or disordered function. b. An emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person’s life.
2. a. An unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending, especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome. b. A situation that has reached a critical phase.

~ Webster’s Dictionary

The purpose of this chapter is to help individuals close to an addict understand that the ongoing pattern of crisis, urgency and turmoil in addiction is both commonplace and predictable, so that whatever the addict’s current state of crisis may be or how it presents during the intervention, it does not derail you from success.

Crisis is a way of life in addiction. Gaining perspective on crises in general, as well as recognizing that crises typically occur during an intervention is important for two reasons:

1. So that you can have some compassion for the addict, understanding that his crises are a way of life, not something directed at you personally.
2. So that you can keep your wits about you and not panic when a crisis erupts, since the most effective interventions by far are the result of people staying calm, and keeping the game plan moving, regardless of what crisis occurs.

The Reason for Crisis

This discussion is not so much about the problems resulting from an addiction which, among other things, can include hospitalizations, arrests, evictions, loss of jobs, school failures and so on, but how and why the addict usesthese crises to his advantage during an intervention, in order to derail it…

Read more here: More Than Hope