Getting Someone Into Treatment ~ CRAFT ~ Non-Confrontational Intervention
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Getting Someone Into Treatment ~ CRAFT ~ Non-Confrontational Intervention
CRAFT: An Alternative to Intervention
~ by Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D.
People with untreated addictions frequently say that there is nothing wrong with them; they falsely believe that they can control their drug or alcohol use. They strongly resist the notion that they need treatment, even when family members or friends believe otherwise. That's why it may be tempting to take a hands-off approach to the problem, hoping that your relative or friend's drug or alcohol problem will just go away - that he or she is just going through a phase and will get better with time. Or you may decide that treatment won't help because your addicted friend or relative doesn't want to make a change. But both of these beliefs are myths that can lead to a more severe addiction and to greater family disruption.
Addiction is a progressive disorder -it gets worse over time. The sooner a person receives treatment for addiction, the greater the chances for long-term recovery. Further, experts know that forced, or mandated, treatment can be successful. In fact, most people receiving treatment for addiction are getting help because they were forced into it by family or friends, employers or the criminal justice system.
Common wisdom taught that confrontation - "intervention" - was necessary to get a loved one into treatment. This confrontational approach is sometimes successful, but may not be the best approach. Intervention methods have been refined in recent years. A newer approach, called Community Reinforcement and Family Training or CRAFT, relies on a gentler, more supportive approach.
However you choose to get your loved one into treatment, if possible, get the advice of an addiction treatment specialist - and try to learn if there is space available in the treatment program of your choice before you begin your effort.
CRAFT METHOD: Community Reinforcement and Family Training
• The CRAFT method relies on non-confrontational methods to encourage loved ones to enter addiction treatment.
• The method also can help family members improve the quality of their lives.
• CRAFT's effectiveness has been proven through scientific study.
Do you have a substance-using loved one who refuses treatment? The CRAFT program may help. CRAFT - Community Reinforcement and Family Training - teaches the use of healthy rewards to encourage positive behaviors. Plus, it focuses on helping both the substance user and the family.
The CRAFT goals are to teach you how to encourage your substance user to reduce use and enter treatment. The other goal is to help you enhance your own quality of life. This non-confrontational approach teaches you how to figure out the best times and strategies to make small but powerful changes. And it will show you how to do so in a fashion that reduces relationship conflict.
Experts have based CRAFT on solid science. People from many walks of life have used it successfully to help their loved ones and themselves. Whether you are the parent, spouse, romantic partner, adult child or friend of the substance user, research tells us that you too can succeed with this program. The methods are effective and easy to learn. CRAFT allows family members to feel good about their efforts on behalf of their loved ones
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT is a motivational model of help based on research that consistently finds motivational treatments to be superior to confrontational ones.
CRAFT shows you how to develop your loved one's motivation to change by helping you figure out how to appropriately reward healthy behavior. You learn how to make sober activities more attractive to your loved one, and drug- or alcohol-using activities less inviting. In this way, you minimize conflict and maximize cooperative relationship-enhancing interactions with your loved one.
2. More than two-thirds of family members who use CRAFT successfully engage their substance using loved ones in treatment.
This stands in sharp contrast to confrontational interventions that result in fewer than one-third of substance users entering treatment. The graph depicts one of the alcohol studies that contrasted CRAFT with intervention.
3. Evidence suggests that substance users who are pushed into treatment by a traditional confrontational intervention are more likely to relapse than clients who are encouraged into treatment with less confrontational means.
4. Family members who use CRAFT experience greater improvements in their emotional and physical health than do those who use confrontational methods to try to help their loved ones.
5. People who use CRAFT are more likely to see the process through to success than those who use confrontational methods.
CRAFT programs have extremely low dropout rates, while over 75% of the people who try to use traditional interventions quit. The dropouts report that the confrontational techniques are too distressing and they worry about doing permanent damage to their relationship with the substance user.
FIVE MYTHS ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT's system of offering and withdrawing "rewards" such as your affection and attention is just another way of enabling someone who is using substances. And enabling is bad.
Receiving affection and compliments for non-using behavior makes that behavior more enjoyable for your loved one. So, being nice when your loved one is engaged in sober activities makes it more likely that she or he continues those behaviors. One might say that you are "enabling" healthy behavior. Furthermore, CRAFT specifically teaches you how to withdraw rewards when the person is using - and this is the opposite of the traditional concept of enabling.
2. No one enters treatment until they "hit bottom" so using CRAFT while your loved one is still functioning is a waste of time.
People enter treatment when the reasons not to use outweigh the reasons to use. And as research has clearly shown, family members can help shift the balance so that the user develops enough reasons to stop. You can increase your loved one's reasons to not use by making sober time more enjoyable than using time. When she or he is not using, enjoy good times together. When she or he does use, withdraw yourself from the situation. The more pleasure your loved one experiences while sober, the less attractive getting drunk or high will be. So it is never too early to use the CRAFT alternative to nagging and threatening.
3. Most substance users overdo it all the time so it is impossible to do anything to lessen the severity of their use.
To the contrary, CRAFT teaches you how to map out your loved one's patterns to figure out the best ways to alter them. You learn two critical skills that allow you to do this. One is to identify the early triggers and signs of a drinking or drugging episode. The other is to determine which consequences you can influence or orchestrate yourself to begin to manage those episodes
4. If you love someone, it is cruel to allow him or her to sleep in vomit or endure public humiliation when you have the power to fix those things.
Substance use creates messes. It causes missed work, embarrassing public behavior, vomit, wrecked relationships and worse. When it is your own loved one who gets into these messes, it is very difficult to just stand by and let him or her suffer. However, fixing the messes and protecting your loved one from his or her poor choices only makes it okay for those choices to be repeated. This may indeed be the most difficult lesson of CRAFT. With the exception of allowing truly dangerous behavior, let your loved deal with his or her own messes. These are called natural consequences and are powerful motivators to rethink one's behavior choices.
5. Once your loved one agrees to stop using or enter treatment, your job is done.
Between agreeing to enter treatment and making an appointment, a thousand things will change a substance user's mind. Your job, as a successful CRAFT practicer, is to select a therapist and be sure that he or she is ready to see your loved one within a day or two. From there, your support of treatment is invaluable. It can make the difference between your loved one dropping out of treatment or joining you in a happier, healthier life.
~ by Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D.
People with untreated addictions frequently say that there is nothing wrong with them; they falsely believe that they can control their drug or alcohol use. They strongly resist the notion that they need treatment, even when family members or friends believe otherwise. That's why it may be tempting to take a hands-off approach to the problem, hoping that your relative or friend's drug or alcohol problem will just go away - that he or she is just going through a phase and will get better with time. Or you may decide that treatment won't help because your addicted friend or relative doesn't want to make a change. But both of these beliefs are myths that can lead to a more severe addiction and to greater family disruption.
Addiction is a progressive disorder -it gets worse over time. The sooner a person receives treatment for addiction, the greater the chances for long-term recovery. Further, experts know that forced, or mandated, treatment can be successful. In fact, most people receiving treatment for addiction are getting help because they were forced into it by family or friends, employers or the criminal justice system.
Common wisdom taught that confrontation - "intervention" - was necessary to get a loved one into treatment. This confrontational approach is sometimes successful, but may not be the best approach. Intervention methods have been refined in recent years. A newer approach, called Community Reinforcement and Family Training or CRAFT, relies on a gentler, more supportive approach.
However you choose to get your loved one into treatment, if possible, get the advice of an addiction treatment specialist - and try to learn if there is space available in the treatment program of your choice before you begin your effort.
CRAFT METHOD: Community Reinforcement and Family Training
• The CRAFT method relies on non-confrontational methods to encourage loved ones to enter addiction treatment.
• The method also can help family members improve the quality of their lives.
• CRAFT's effectiveness has been proven through scientific study.
Do you have a substance-using loved one who refuses treatment? The CRAFT program may help. CRAFT - Community Reinforcement and Family Training - teaches the use of healthy rewards to encourage positive behaviors. Plus, it focuses on helping both the substance user and the family.
The CRAFT goals are to teach you how to encourage your substance user to reduce use and enter treatment. The other goal is to help you enhance your own quality of life. This non-confrontational approach teaches you how to figure out the best times and strategies to make small but powerful changes. And it will show you how to do so in a fashion that reduces relationship conflict.
Experts have based CRAFT on solid science. People from many walks of life have used it successfully to help their loved ones and themselves. Whether you are the parent, spouse, romantic partner, adult child or friend of the substance user, research tells us that you too can succeed with this program. The methods are effective and easy to learn. CRAFT allows family members to feel good about their efforts on behalf of their loved ones
When a CRAFT Program is Not Available in Your Community ?
CRAFT can easily be learned on your own. The 2004 book, Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening by Robert J. Meyers and Brenda L. Wolfe, was written to bring CRAFT right into your home. It helps you change the way you think about your situation and teaches you how to help your loved one learn to enjoy a sober lifestyle.
The authors also help you rethink your own lifestyle to make it safer and saner regardless of what your loved one does. If you are also working with a therapist, we recommend that you alert your counselor to the CRAFT manual for therapists, Motivating Substance Abusers to Enter Treatment: Working with Family Members.
CRAFT can easily be learned on your own. The 2004 book, Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening by Robert J. Meyers and Brenda L. Wolfe, was written to bring CRAFT right into your home. It helps you change the way you think about your situation and teaches you how to help your loved one learn to enjoy a sober lifestyle.
The authors also help you rethink your own lifestyle to make it safer and saner regardless of what your loved one does. If you are also working with a therapist, we recommend that you alert your counselor to the CRAFT manual for therapists, Motivating Substance Abusers to Enter Treatment: Working with Family Members.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT is a motivational model of help based on research that consistently finds motivational treatments to be superior to confrontational ones.
CRAFT shows you how to develop your loved one's motivation to change by helping you figure out how to appropriately reward healthy behavior. You learn how to make sober activities more attractive to your loved one, and drug- or alcohol-using activities less inviting. In this way, you minimize conflict and maximize cooperative relationship-enhancing interactions with your loved one.
2. More than two-thirds of family members who use CRAFT successfully engage their substance using loved ones in treatment.
This stands in sharp contrast to confrontational interventions that result in fewer than one-third of substance users entering treatment. The graph depicts one of the alcohol studies that contrasted CRAFT with intervention.
3. Evidence suggests that substance users who are pushed into treatment by a traditional confrontational intervention are more likely to relapse than clients who are encouraged into treatment with less confrontational means.
4. Family members who use CRAFT experience greater improvements in their emotional and physical health than do those who use confrontational methods to try to help their loved ones.
5. People who use CRAFT are more likely to see the process through to success than those who use confrontational methods.
CRAFT programs have extremely low dropout rates, while over 75% of the people who try to use traditional interventions quit. The dropouts report that the confrontational techniques are too distressing and they worry about doing permanent damage to their relationship with the substance user.
FIVE MYTHS ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT's system of offering and withdrawing "rewards" such as your affection and attention is just another way of enabling someone who is using substances. And enabling is bad.
Receiving affection and compliments for non-using behavior makes that behavior more enjoyable for your loved one. So, being nice when your loved one is engaged in sober activities makes it more likely that she or he continues those behaviors. One might say that you are "enabling" healthy behavior. Furthermore, CRAFT specifically teaches you how to withdraw rewards when the person is using - and this is the opposite of the traditional concept of enabling.
2. No one enters treatment until they "hit bottom" so using CRAFT while your loved one is still functioning is a waste of time.
People enter treatment when the reasons not to use outweigh the reasons to use. And as research has clearly shown, family members can help shift the balance so that the user develops enough reasons to stop. You can increase your loved one's reasons to not use by making sober time more enjoyable than using time. When she or he is not using, enjoy good times together. When she or he does use, withdraw yourself from the situation. The more pleasure your loved one experiences while sober, the less attractive getting drunk or high will be. So it is never too early to use the CRAFT alternative to nagging and threatening.
3. Most substance users overdo it all the time so it is impossible to do anything to lessen the severity of their use.
To the contrary, CRAFT teaches you how to map out your loved one's patterns to figure out the best ways to alter them. You learn two critical skills that allow you to do this. One is to identify the early triggers and signs of a drinking or drugging episode. The other is to determine which consequences you can influence or orchestrate yourself to begin to manage those episodes
4. If you love someone, it is cruel to allow him or her to sleep in vomit or endure public humiliation when you have the power to fix those things.
Substance use creates messes. It causes missed work, embarrassing public behavior, vomit, wrecked relationships and worse. When it is your own loved one who gets into these messes, it is very difficult to just stand by and let him or her suffer. However, fixing the messes and protecting your loved one from his or her poor choices only makes it okay for those choices to be repeated. This may indeed be the most difficult lesson of CRAFT. With the exception of allowing truly dangerous behavior, let your loved deal with his or her own messes. These are called natural consequences and are powerful motivators to rethink one's behavior choices.
5. Once your loved one agrees to stop using or enter treatment, your job is done.
Between agreeing to enter treatment and making an appointment, a thousand things will change a substance user's mind. Your job, as a successful CRAFT practicer, is to select a therapist and be sure that he or she is ready to see your loved one within a day or two. From there, your support of treatment is invaluable. It can make the difference between your loved one dropping out of treatment or joining you in a happier, healthier life.
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,854
I looked on my reading list and this book has been on there for a while. I love to read and Ive gone through a dozen or more books in the last few months when this started. I will bump this one up, right now Ive started a book called the Dance of Anger to help me work through to acceptance.
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Originally Posted by BlueChair 
I looked on my reading list and this book has been on there for a while. I love to read and Ive gone through a dozen or more books in the last few months when this started. I will bump this one up, right now Ive started a book called the Dance of Anger to help me work through to acceptance.
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,854
Originally Posted by LoveMeNow
Oh Bluechair, I just loved the Dance of Anger. I may have to read again, lol.
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 5,750
Originally Posted by BlueChair
I finished reading a book called Beyond the Affair: Healing of a Marriage recommended by the family counselor I see with my husband. We both read it at her suggestion. Alone Ive been working on moving through the stages of "everything" to get to where I feel more peace and acceptance. I met another woman through the rehab, and she's also dealing with adultery, and suggested Dance of Anger might help. It was like a sign or something because i debated on buying it, and then I was at my parents, talking to my mom and she had read it a few years ago, and had it right in the library. She agreed it might help me deal with my feelings, and also see patterns might develop with my husband so I can head them off before they happen. If you read it again, I would be up for comparing notes.
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 1,295
Thanks so much for this. I've been reading them but haven't responded yet and I want you to know this line of thinking really works for me, logical and accommodating to various situations. It's a method I can use and makes sense to me.
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 258
Originally Posted by allforcnm
CRAFT: An Alternative to Intervention
~ by Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D.
People with untreated addictions frequently say that there is nothing wrong with them; they falsely believe that they can control their drug or alcohol use. They strongly resist the notion that they need treatment, even when family members or friends believe otherwise. That's why it may be tempting to take a hands-off approach to the problem, hoping that your relative or friend's drug or alcohol problem will just go away - that he or she is just going through a phase and will get better with time. Or you may decide that treatment won't help because your addicted friend or relative doesn't want to make a change. But both of these beliefs are myths that can lead to a more severe addiction and to greater family disruption.
Addiction is a progressive disorder -it gets worse over time. The sooner a person receives treatment for addiction, the greater the chances for long-term recovery. Further, experts know that forced, or mandated, treatment can be successful. In fact, most people receiving treatment for addiction are getting help because they were forced into it by family or friends, employers or the criminal justice system.
Common wisdom taught that confrontation - "intervention" - was necessary to get a loved one into treatment. This confrontational approach is sometimes successful, but may not be the best approach. Intervention methods have been refined in recent years. A newer approach, called Community Reinforcement and Family Training or CRAFT, relies on a gentler, more supportive approach.
However you choose to get your loved one into treatment, if possible, get the advice of an addiction treatment specialist - and try to learn if there is space available in the treatment program of your choice before you begin your effort.
CRAFT METHOD: Community Reinforcement and Family Training
• The CRAFT method relies on non-confrontational methods to encourage loved ones to enter addiction treatment.
• The method also can help family members improve the quality of their lives.
• CRAFT's effectiveness has been proven through scientific study.
Do you have a substance-using loved one who refuses treatment? The CRAFT program may help. CRAFT - Community Reinforcement and Family Training - teaches the use of healthy rewards to encourage positive behaviors. Plus, it focuses on helping both the substance user and the family.
The CRAFT goals are to teach you how to encourage your substance user to reduce use and enter treatment. The other goal is to help you enhance your own quality of life. This non-confrontational approach teaches you how to figure out the best times and strategies to make small but powerful changes. And it will show you how to do so in a fashion that reduces relationship conflict.
Experts have based CRAFT on solid science. People from many walks of life have used it successfully to help their loved ones and themselves. Whether you are the parent, spouse, romantic partner, adult child or friend of the substance user, research tells us that you too can succeed with this program. The methods are effective and easy to learn. CRAFT allows family members to feel good about their efforts on behalf of their loved ones
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT is a motivational model of help based on research that consistently finds motivational treatments to be superior to confrontational ones.
CRAFT shows you how to develop your loved one's motivation to change by helping you figure out how to appropriately reward healthy behavior. You learn how to make sober activities more attractive to your loved one, and drug- or alcohol-using activities less inviting. In this way, you minimize conflict and maximize cooperative relationship-enhancing interactions with your loved one.
2. More than two-thirds of family members who use CRAFT successfully engage their substance using loved ones in treatment.
This stands in sharp contrast to confrontational interventions that result in fewer than one-third of substance users entering treatment. The graph depicts one of the alcohol studies that contrasted CRAFT with intervention.
3. Evidence suggests that substance users who are pushed into treatment by a traditional confrontational intervention are more likely to relapse than clients who are encouraged into treatment with less confrontational means.
4. Family members who use CRAFT experience greater improvements in their emotional and physical health than do those who use confrontational methods to try to help their loved ones.
5. People who use CRAFT are more likely to see the process through to success than those who use confrontational methods.
CRAFT programs have extremely low dropout rates, while over 75% of the people who try to use traditional interventions quit. The dropouts report that the confrontational techniques are too distressing and they worry about doing permanent damage to their relationship with the substance user.
FIVE MYTHS ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT's system of offering and withdrawing "rewards" such as your affection and attention is just another way of enabling someone who is using substances. And enabling is bad.
Receiving affection and compliments for non-using behavior makes that behavior more enjoyable for your loved one. So, being nice when your loved one is engaged in sober activities makes it more likely that she or he continues those behaviors. One might say that you are "enabling" healthy behavior. Furthermore, CRAFT specifically teaches you how to withdraw rewards when the person is using - and this is the opposite of the traditional concept of enabling.
2. No one enters treatment until they "hit bottom" so using CRAFT while your loved one is still functioning is a waste of time.
People enter treatment when the reasons not to use outweigh the reasons to use. And as research has clearly shown, family members can help shift the balance so that the user develops enough reasons to stop. You can increase your loved one's reasons to not use by making sober time more enjoyable than using time. When she or he is not using, enjoy good times together. When she or he does use, withdraw yourself from the situation. The more pleasure your loved one experiences while sober, the less attractive getting drunk or high will be. So it is never too early to use the CRAFT alternative to nagging and threatening.
3. Most substance users overdo it all the time so it is impossible to do anything to lessen the severity of their use.
To the contrary, CRAFT teaches you how to map out your loved one's patterns to figure out the best ways to alter them. You learn two critical skills that allow you to do this. One is to identify the early triggers and signs of a drinking or drugging episode. The other is to determine which consequences you can influence or orchestrate yourself to begin to manage those episodes
4. If you love someone, it is cruel to allow him or her to sleep in vomit or endure public humiliation when you have the power to fix those things.
Substance use creates messes. It causes missed work, embarrassing public behavior, vomit, wrecked relationships and worse. When it is your own loved one who gets into these messes, it is very difficult to just stand by and let him or her suffer. However, fixing the messes and protecting your loved one from his or her poor choices only makes it okay for those choices to be repeated. This may indeed be the most difficult lesson of CRAFT. With the exception of allowing truly dangerous behavior, let your loved deal with his or her own messes. These are called natural consequences and are powerful motivators to rethink one's behavior choices.
5. Once your loved one agrees to stop using or enter treatment, your job is done.
Between agreeing to enter treatment and making an appointment, a thousand things will change a substance user's mind. Your job, as a successful CRAFT practicer, is to select a therapist and be sure that he or she is ready to see your loved one within a day or two. From there, your support of treatment is invaluable. It can make the difference between your loved one dropping out of treatment or joining you in a happier, healthier life.
~ by Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D.
People with untreated addictions frequently say that there is nothing wrong with them; they falsely believe that they can control their drug or alcohol use. They strongly resist the notion that they need treatment, even when family members or friends believe otherwise. That's why it may be tempting to take a hands-off approach to the problem, hoping that your relative or friend's drug or alcohol problem will just go away - that he or she is just going through a phase and will get better with time. Or you may decide that treatment won't help because your addicted friend or relative doesn't want to make a change. But both of these beliefs are myths that can lead to a more severe addiction and to greater family disruption.
Addiction is a progressive disorder -it gets worse over time. The sooner a person receives treatment for addiction, the greater the chances for long-term recovery. Further, experts know that forced, or mandated, treatment can be successful. In fact, most people receiving treatment for addiction are getting help because they were forced into it by family or friends, employers or the criminal justice system.
Common wisdom taught that confrontation - "intervention" - was necessary to get a loved one into treatment. This confrontational approach is sometimes successful, but may not be the best approach. Intervention methods have been refined in recent years. A newer approach, called Community Reinforcement and Family Training or CRAFT, relies on a gentler, more supportive approach.
However you choose to get your loved one into treatment, if possible, get the advice of an addiction treatment specialist - and try to learn if there is space available in the treatment program of your choice before you begin your effort.
CRAFT METHOD: Community Reinforcement and Family Training
• The CRAFT method relies on non-confrontational methods to encourage loved ones to enter addiction treatment.
• The method also can help family members improve the quality of their lives.
• CRAFT's effectiveness has been proven through scientific study.
Do you have a substance-using loved one who refuses treatment? The CRAFT program may help. CRAFT - Community Reinforcement and Family Training - teaches the use of healthy rewards to encourage positive behaviors. Plus, it focuses on helping both the substance user and the family.
The CRAFT goals are to teach you how to encourage your substance user to reduce use and enter treatment. The other goal is to help you enhance your own quality of life. This non-confrontational approach teaches you how to figure out the best times and strategies to make small but powerful changes. And it will show you how to do so in a fashion that reduces relationship conflict.
Experts have based CRAFT on solid science. People from many walks of life have used it successfully to help their loved ones and themselves. Whether you are the parent, spouse, romantic partner, adult child or friend of the substance user, research tells us that you too can succeed with this program. The methods are effective and easy to learn. CRAFT allows family members to feel good about their efforts on behalf of their loved ones
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT is a motivational model of help based on research that consistently finds motivational treatments to be superior to confrontational ones.
CRAFT shows you how to develop your loved one's motivation to change by helping you figure out how to appropriately reward healthy behavior. You learn how to make sober activities more attractive to your loved one, and drug- or alcohol-using activities less inviting. In this way, you minimize conflict and maximize cooperative relationship-enhancing interactions with your loved one.
2. More than two-thirds of family members who use CRAFT successfully engage their substance using loved ones in treatment.
This stands in sharp contrast to confrontational interventions that result in fewer than one-third of substance users entering treatment. The graph depicts one of the alcohol studies that contrasted CRAFT with intervention.
3. Evidence suggests that substance users who are pushed into treatment by a traditional confrontational intervention are more likely to relapse than clients who are encouraged into treatment with less confrontational means.
4. Family members who use CRAFT experience greater improvements in their emotional and physical health than do those who use confrontational methods to try to help their loved ones.
5. People who use CRAFT are more likely to see the process through to success than those who use confrontational methods.
CRAFT programs have extremely low dropout rates, while over 75% of the people who try to use traditional interventions quit. The dropouts report that the confrontational techniques are too distressing and they worry about doing permanent damage to their relationship with the substance user.
FIVE MYTHS ABOUT CRAFT
1. CRAFT's system of offering and withdrawing "rewards" such as your affection and attention is just another way of enabling someone who is using substances. And enabling is bad.
Receiving affection and compliments for non-using behavior makes that behavior more enjoyable for your loved one. So, being nice when your loved one is engaged in sober activities makes it more likely that she or he continues those behaviors. One might say that you are "enabling" healthy behavior. Furthermore, CRAFT specifically teaches you how to withdraw rewards when the person is using - and this is the opposite of the traditional concept of enabling.
2. No one enters treatment until they "hit bottom" so using CRAFT while your loved one is still functioning is a waste of time.
People enter treatment when the reasons not to use outweigh the reasons to use. And as research has clearly shown, family members can help shift the balance so that the user develops enough reasons to stop. You can increase your loved one's reasons to not use by making sober time more enjoyable than using time. When she or he is not using, enjoy good times together. When she or he does use, withdraw yourself from the situation. The more pleasure your loved one experiences while sober, the less attractive getting drunk or high will be. So it is never too early to use the CRAFT alternative to nagging and threatening.
3. Most substance users overdo it all the time so it is impossible to do anything to lessen the severity of their use.
To the contrary, CRAFT teaches you how to map out your loved one's patterns to figure out the best ways to alter them. You learn two critical skills that allow you to do this. One is to identify the early triggers and signs of a drinking or drugging episode. The other is to determine which consequences you can influence or orchestrate yourself to begin to manage those episodes
4. If you love someone, it is cruel to allow him or her to sleep in vomit or endure public humiliation when you have the power to fix those things.
Substance use creates messes. It causes missed work, embarrassing public behavior, vomit, wrecked relationships and worse. When it is your own loved one who gets into these messes, it is very difficult to just stand by and let him or her suffer. However, fixing the messes and protecting your loved one from his or her poor choices only makes it okay for those choices to be repeated. This may indeed be the most difficult lesson of CRAFT. With the exception of allowing truly dangerous behavior, let your loved deal with his or her own messes. These are called natural consequences and are powerful motivators to rethink one's behavior choices.
5. Once your loved one agrees to stop using or enter treatment, your job is done.
Between agreeing to enter treatment and making an appointment, a thousand things will change a substance user's mind. Your job, as a successful CRAFT practicer, is to select a therapist and be sure that he or she is ready to see your loved one within a day or two. From there, your support of treatment is invaluable. It can make the difference between your loved one dropping out of treatment or joining you in a happier, healthier life.
How many of us here tried to show the addict how beautiful life is without drugs?
Isn't a happy healthy family "good" and "reward" enough so it requires "disneyland reward quality" to "help" someone into treatment?
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 1,927
So much activity on the CRAFT topic today; it's great- brings awareness there are valid options for family outside of 12 step programs such as Alanon or Naranon.
I posted this article on CRAFT and will be sharing more as it is the approach taught to me by the doctors at my husbands non-12 step rehab.
So first for those that don’t know…CRAFT is endorsed by National Institute of Drug Abuse, Partnership Drug Free America, medical professionals, addiction doctors, therapist, and more. It's also used by family members at SMART recovery. You will find articles Pro- CRAFT in the NY times, Chicago Tribune and many other outlets.
I don't believe it's endorsed by AA however...although I do know family members who combine this with alanon (take what you want and leave the rest concept I'm assuming).
I share about CRAFT because it worked (still works) for me & my family. It was taught to me by one of those PhD doctors who specialize in addiction Medicine
My husbands addiction started with prescription pain pills; vicodin initially. Left untreated his addiction advanced to a wide variety of pain meds, xanax and coke. He entered treatment due to an intervention by myself, my parents, his brother, and a doctor.
He did not want rehab, but we insisted. He definitely did not want 3 months but we insisted.
I narrowed down his options; all non 12 step, evidence based approaches that dealt with root cause, multiple diagnosis, psychotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, etc. Treatment that was tailored to him specifically.
A side note, none of our reasons for this type of treatment were based on religion. We are Christian and find spiritual support through our church.
While he was in rehab I was introduced to CRAFT. I used it to support his early recovery, a reminder to focus on my own self care, and to ready myself in case of relapse.
I credit CRAFT for encouraging communication between us, for helping me navigate those early days, weeks, months....when tensions can be high and nerves frazzled.
My husband and I have been on one amazing journey but we have come out of it stronger; both as individuals and as a couple. He has not relapsed and will have two years in April.
Last summer we began mentoring families through his rehab; sharing our experience, strength, hope with others.
So I share about CRAFT now knowing it is not recommended that family sit back and wait for their loved ones to seek treatment on their own; rock bottom is a myth.... Some die waiting for it to come.
Craft is a motivational approach more than anything. It is respectful, not manipulative, or forceful. Craft does not encourage family to enable their loved ones addiction, its focused on family's safety and self care first, it teaches how to map your own behavior along with the addicted persons, because we often play off each other emotionally. If we change our responses, often our loved ones sense this, and respond back differently. Craft also has no room for bitterness, teaches compassion, and believes people can be motivated by positive reinforcements as easily as negative ones.
Positive reinforcements are natural responses we feel and share with our loved one. They are not meant to be phony gestures, but instead acknowledgments when you see real effort put into changing behaviors. It's an ongoing acknowledgment that recovery is hard work.
CRAFT does work for many who wish to engage their loved ones in treatment. Does it work for everyone – of course not.
One last note, CRAFT does not take credit or suggest family take credit for their loved ones recovery. Recovery is an inside job.... Craft seeks to help you encourage treatment - so they can begin to face their addiction, get professional help when possible, and embrace recovery on their own.
If your a family member who would like to learn more about CRAFT, partnership drug free has trained professionals available to discuss your personal situation and analyze if CRAFT might work for your family. (online or toll free). SMART recovery also has trained facilitators, and weekly online meetings. All the aforementioned are FREE.
I will be happy to share more via P.M if anyone has additional questions for me specifically.
I share about CRAFT because along with therapy it is the method I used for my own recovery. I share to let others know it exists… and that sometimes it has positive results for FAMILY and the addicted one in your life.
I posted this article on CRAFT and will be sharing more as it is the approach taught to me by the doctors at my husbands non-12 step rehab.
So first for those that don’t know…CRAFT is endorsed by National Institute of Drug Abuse, Partnership Drug Free America, medical professionals, addiction doctors, therapist, and more. It's also used by family members at SMART recovery. You will find articles Pro- CRAFT in the NY times, Chicago Tribune and many other outlets.
I don't believe it's endorsed by AA however...although I do know family members who combine this with alanon (take what you want and leave the rest concept I'm assuming).
I share about CRAFT because it worked (still works) for me & my family. It was taught to me by one of those PhD doctors who specialize in addiction Medicine
My husbands addiction started with prescription pain pills; vicodin initially. Left untreated his addiction advanced to a wide variety of pain meds, xanax and coke. He entered treatment due to an intervention by myself, my parents, his brother, and a doctor.
He did not want rehab, but we insisted. He definitely did not want 3 months but we insisted.
I narrowed down his options; all non 12 step, evidence based approaches that dealt with root cause, multiple diagnosis, psychotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, etc. Treatment that was tailored to him specifically.
A side note, none of our reasons for this type of treatment were based on religion. We are Christian and find spiritual support through our church.
While he was in rehab I was introduced to CRAFT. I used it to support his early recovery, a reminder to focus on my own self care, and to ready myself in case of relapse.
I credit CRAFT for encouraging communication between us, for helping me navigate those early days, weeks, months....when tensions can be high and nerves frazzled.
My husband and I have been on one amazing journey but we have come out of it stronger; both as individuals and as a couple. He has not relapsed and will have two years in April.
Last summer we began mentoring families through his rehab; sharing our experience, strength, hope with others.
So I share about CRAFT now knowing it is not recommended that family sit back and wait for their loved ones to seek treatment on their own; rock bottom is a myth.... Some die waiting for it to come.
Craft is a motivational approach more than anything. It is respectful, not manipulative, or forceful. Craft does not encourage family to enable their loved ones addiction, its focused on family's safety and self care first, it teaches how to map your own behavior along with the addicted persons, because we often play off each other emotionally. If we change our responses, often our loved ones sense this, and respond back differently. Craft also has no room for bitterness, teaches compassion, and believes people can be motivated by positive reinforcements as easily as negative ones.
Positive reinforcements are natural responses we feel and share with our loved one. They are not meant to be phony gestures, but instead acknowledgments when you see real effort put into changing behaviors. It's an ongoing acknowledgment that recovery is hard work.
CRAFT does work for many who wish to engage their loved ones in treatment. Does it work for everyone – of course not.
One last note, CRAFT does not take credit or suggest family take credit for their loved ones recovery. Recovery is an inside job.... Craft seeks to help you encourage treatment - so they can begin to face their addiction, get professional help when possible, and embrace recovery on their own.
If your a family member who would like to learn more about CRAFT, partnership drug free has trained professionals available to discuss your personal situation and analyze if CRAFT might work for your family. (online or toll free). SMART recovery also has trained facilitators, and weekly online meetings. All the aforementioned are FREE.
I will be happy to share more via P.M if anyone has additional questions for me specifically.
I share about CRAFT because along with therapy it is the method I used for my own recovery. I share to let others know it exists… and that sometimes it has positive results for FAMILY and the addicted one in your life.
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,854
Ive been reading all about CRAFT today, its all over the internet about how good it is. Last night we had our family session, and tonight I have my own counseling session, I printed off some things and Im going to ask her about it. 
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Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 1,927
The CRAFT Approach: Encouraging Healthy, Constructive, Positive Changes for Your Family
Partnership Drug Free
~Jeff Foote, Carrie Wilkens and Nicole Kosanke
“My son is using drugs and it’s wrecking our family. I’ve tried to talk to him, but he just gets mad and then we just stop talking. What should I do?”
We often receive this kind of call here at Center for Motivation & Change (CMC). It’s a terrible call because of the anguish involved. It’s also a wonderful call, because we have the tools needed to help. A call like this provides our CMC clinicians the opportunity to invite the family member to learn about CRAFT.
Community Reinforcement and Family Training, or CRAFT, is an approach for families who have a loved one struggling with substances but who is not really interested in making changes or getting help. CRAFT is about learning a different method to communicate with and support your loved one. It’s about taking care of yourself, while also learning how to interact with your loved one in a way that increases the likelihood of making a real change.
The old method – either help them, or help yourself by distancing yourself from them – was never a choice you should have to make. CRAFT teaches you a series of strategies such as:
• Understanding how to communicate positively (even when things aren’t going so well)
• Using positive reinforcement to focus on what is working, while allowing for the bad stuff they are doing to impact them
• Taking real steps and developing real awareness of what it means to take care of yourself, not as an afterthought, but as a priority for the whole family
Parents have been told a number of things that are neither helpful nor practical: “Let them hit bottom, they have to figure it out for themselves”; “There’s nothing you can do, helping them is enabling their use and means you are ‘co-dependent.’” These “tough love” messages are often excruciating for many parents.
The good news? You can help your loved one without taking those steps.
CRAFT works to change your interactions with your loved one so that sober behavior is more rewarding to them than continued alcohol and drug use.
CRAFT is “menu-driven.” This means that different components and procedures are selected from the CRAFT “menu” based on the family’s particular needs. Where the treatment starts depends on the substance user’s behavior, severity and openness to change. It also depends on your emotional state, experience and history as a family.
CRAFT research (and our clinical experience) has demonstrated that by learning skills and understanding what motivates your child, positive change can occur. Evidence shows that positive outcomes occur at a much higher rate with the CRAFT approach than with other, more well-known approaches, such as either the 12-Step Anon programs or Intervention approaches.
Why? Probably because CRAFT is positive, aimed at encouraging healthy, constructive changes, and is focused on helping your child develop or re-develop a life. In addition, CRAFT is a behavioral approach, interested in changing behaviors (theirs and yours), not just talking about them. And as we mentioned, it is geared toward improving your life as well. Research studies repeatedly find that family members feel much better throughout the CRAFT process, whether or not their loved one ultimately gets into treatment. Best of all, using the CRAFT approach, the substance user in the family seeks treatment at a rate of about 65-75%, 2-3 times higher than interventions or Anon approaches.
CRAFT works. It may require work, practice, stumbles, practice and more practice. But CRAFT also teaches you that “you can help.”
Perhaps most importantly, the skills, strategies and insight you gain through CRAFT are built for the long haul: what you will learn now will remain applicable beyond your current situation; it’s not just useful when “trying to get him to say yes to treatment.” Saying yes matters, but what matters more are the changes you can make in your family, because these changes are the ones that provide the fuel for lasting change, not just for putting out the immediate fire.
Partnership Drug Free
~Jeff Foote, Carrie Wilkens and Nicole Kosanke
“My son is using drugs and it’s wrecking our family. I’ve tried to talk to him, but he just gets mad and then we just stop talking. What should I do?”
We often receive this kind of call here at Center for Motivation & Change (CMC). It’s a terrible call because of the anguish involved. It’s also a wonderful call, because we have the tools needed to help. A call like this provides our CMC clinicians the opportunity to invite the family member to learn about CRAFT.
Community Reinforcement and Family Training, or CRAFT, is an approach for families who have a loved one struggling with substances but who is not really interested in making changes or getting help. CRAFT is about learning a different method to communicate with and support your loved one. It’s about taking care of yourself, while also learning how to interact with your loved one in a way that increases the likelihood of making a real change.
The old method – either help them, or help yourself by distancing yourself from them – was never a choice you should have to make. CRAFT teaches you a series of strategies such as:
• Understanding how to communicate positively (even when things aren’t going so well)
• Using positive reinforcement to focus on what is working, while allowing for the bad stuff they are doing to impact them
• Taking real steps and developing real awareness of what it means to take care of yourself, not as an afterthought, but as a priority for the whole family
Parents have been told a number of things that are neither helpful nor practical: “Let them hit bottom, they have to figure it out for themselves”; “There’s nothing you can do, helping them is enabling their use and means you are ‘co-dependent.’” These “tough love” messages are often excruciating for many parents.
The good news? You can help your loved one without taking those steps.
CRAFT works to change your interactions with your loved one so that sober behavior is more rewarding to them than continued alcohol and drug use.
CRAFT is “menu-driven.” This means that different components and procedures are selected from the CRAFT “menu” based on the family’s particular needs. Where the treatment starts depends on the substance user’s behavior, severity and openness to change. It also depends on your emotional state, experience and history as a family.
CRAFT research (and our clinical experience) has demonstrated that by learning skills and understanding what motivates your child, positive change can occur. Evidence shows that positive outcomes occur at a much higher rate with the CRAFT approach than with other, more well-known approaches, such as either the 12-Step Anon programs or Intervention approaches.
Why? Probably because CRAFT is positive, aimed at encouraging healthy, constructive changes, and is focused on helping your child develop or re-develop a life. In addition, CRAFT is a behavioral approach, interested in changing behaviors (theirs and yours), not just talking about them. And as we mentioned, it is geared toward improving your life as well. Research studies repeatedly find that family members feel much better throughout the CRAFT process, whether or not their loved one ultimately gets into treatment. Best of all, using the CRAFT approach, the substance user in the family seeks treatment at a rate of about 65-75%, 2-3 times higher than interventions or Anon approaches.
CRAFT works. It may require work, practice, stumbles, practice and more practice. But CRAFT also teaches you that “you can help.”
Perhaps most importantly, the skills, strategies and insight you gain through CRAFT are built for the long haul: what you will learn now will remain applicable beyond your current situation; it’s not just useful when “trying to get him to say yes to treatment.” Saying yes matters, but what matters more are the changes you can make in your family, because these changes are the ones that provide the fuel for lasting change, not just for putting out the immediate fire.
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