I have, in my life, been part of two interventions. The first was for me. The second was for my best friend. Neither one was easy. And they were both more important than anything else in the whole entire world.

Interventions give addicts a second chance in life: a chance to go back and do it right, a chance to set things straight after screwing them all to pieces. Interventions matter because addicts matter, and because the sort of healing that interventions promote can’t be had in any other way.

Addicts need interventions because addicts don’t get it. If they got it, they wouldn’t be addicts. Interventions show addicts what they’re doing to themselves, and to the people they care about; interventions show addicts what they have to lose, and why they should want to get better. Interventions, done right, make addicts understand that rehab is their last best chance…that recovery, in the end, can only happen if they take the first step.

I have, in my life, been part of interventions. And there isn’t a day goes by that I don’t get down on my knees and say thank you for both of them.