Do you think interventions ever work?

If someone is begging for help, claiming to be completely confused and directionless, and you lay the cards out on the table for them and then show them an open path, will they be able to hear you? Is there any point in even trying?

Is there any point in trying to help anyone?

I must admit, I'm bad at interventions. I couldn't care less about what anyone says about me - there's nothing anyone could say that I haven't already thought about myself - but I have an Achilles heel, which is, attacking decent people who aren't there to speak for themselves. I will always speak up on their behalf, which always throws the intervention off track.

However, I still try. It doesn't matter how two-faced someone is, how well they claim to be getting by ignoring the path of destruction they leave in their wake, I think everyone deserves to have someone reach out and try to stop their self-destruction.

The problem is, being attacked for trying to help, which is a given if you try an intervention, absolutely solidifies avoidant beliefs. You will be rejected if you reach out to try to help anyone.

I think it's one of the hardest things to negotiate, the impulse to help, when you are avoidant. Do you call out to someone who's about to go over a cliff, or do you let them fall? Are you strong enough to withstand them screaming at you that they would have noticed it without your help? Can you take the criticism you will receive if someone asks you for help and you, God forbid, tell them the truth?

It's a delicate balance. Who's more important, you - in which case you would opt for self-preservation and you would say nothing - or the other person. In my case, I'm lower than everyone, so I don't feel I have a choice. I must try to help. Even when I know it will blow up in my face. Even when I know what I will go through in the process. Even when it's pointless, because it doesn't matter if someone is falling apart, they won't want to change until they hit rock bottom, so trying to stop it is a waste of energy.