Teresa was a thirty-six-year-old bookkeeper who knew that she had a drinking problem. For example, within the past month she has experienced the need to have a few drinks before going to work, three weeks ago she failed a random blood alcohol test where she is employed, four weeks ago she got pulled over by the state highway patrol for a DUI, and last but not least, for nearly five months she has started to forget what she says and does when she drinks.
Like hosts of other people, Teresa’s involvement with alcohol began little by little and stayed at this level of involvement for quite some time due to the fact once in a “blue moon” she engaged in intermittent social drinking. If truth be told, for around three years, every time she went out to drink, she made sure to drink moderately. Something about her drinking behavior, however, seemed to radically change when she got divorced from her husband.
In Order To Endure the Divorce of Her Husband With Less Misery, Teresa Determined That She Will Start Palling Around More Frequently With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Whoop it Up and Drink
Teresa got exceedingly gloomy about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to refrain from dwelling on her negative emotions she arrived at a decision that she would begin hanging out more frequently with some of her buddies who love to have fun and drink.
Quite candidly, Teresa truly believed that having fun nearly every day by getting a “buzz” by drinking with her pals would help her rise above the breakup of her husband in a less troublesome manner.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases Significantly the More Habitually She Goes to Sporting Events, Private Parties, Family Get-Togethers, Dinner Dates, and Happy Hours With Her Pals
It didn’t take very long, nonetheless, before her drinking increased significantly the more frequently she went to and drank at sporting events, happy hours, family get-togethers, dinner dates, and private parties with her friends. In addition, the fact that her drinking pals were all quite a bit younger than she was and therefore able to party more recklessly was one of the reasons that she didn’t focus more on her increased drinking. Simply put, she was having lots of fun drinking just like everybody else in her group of pals without giving much thought to the effects of her abusive and hazardous drinking.
Yet somewhere in her awareness she realized that she most probably needed alcohol counseling but stayed away from the thought as much as possible.
Teresa Gets a Physical, ”Comes Clean” About Her Hazardous Drinking to Her Healthcare Professional, and Discloses the Truth About Her Melancholy
One afternoon during her annual physical exam, her healthcare professional asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her physician, Teresa acknowledged that she frequently drinks more than she should. In reality, she articulated that she routinely drinks in a hazardous and excessive manner. Then Teresa informed her healthcare practitioner about her general state of gloom. More precisely, she articulated that ruined relationships usually sparked a discouraging cycle of events typified by increased drinking which further led to more disheartening feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is precisely what took place when she and her husband got divorced seven months ago.
When her physician heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was investigating, alcoholism and depression many times arise in the same person. He then told Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, facts, and research investigations he has been reading about also underscore the fact that individuals who drink in an abusive and hazardous manner and who also go through depression need to receive treatment for both medical situations.
Teresa’s Healthcare Professional Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Appraisal and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Assessment
Teresa’s healthcare practitioner then stated the following: “I am not trying to make a spur-of-the-moment analysis, but with your medical situation we may be dealing with two separate matters. As a result, I think we should make an appointment for you to get an alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse evaluation from my partner, Dr. Arndt, who is a substance abuse and chemical dependency specialist. Whether your drinking circumstance is more related to alcohol addiction or alcohol abuse is unclear, but I think that further assessment is warranted. Then I think we probably should make an appointment for you to get a psychological examination from another one of my partners, Dr. Rinkel, who is a counseling psychologist. I want to get a better grip on your sadness and see how much your drinking and depression are related.” Teresa expressed her agreement with her healthcare practitioner’s strategy and thanked him for his time and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to trim down on her drinking and get ready for her appointments.
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.