Teresa was a thirty-five-year-old interior designer who knew that she had a drinking problem. As an illustration, within the past six months she has felt the need to have a drink or two before going to work, two months ago she tested positive for a hair alcohol test at her place of employment, three weeks ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for a DUI, and last but not least, for nearly two months she has begun to fail to remember what she does and says when she goes out drinking with her buddies.
Like multitudes of other people, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol started out little by little and stayed at this tempo for quite a long time because once in a “blue moon” she engaged in casual social drinking. As a matter of fact, for nearly six months, every time she went out with her pals to drink, she made sure to drink responsibly. Something about her drinking circumstances, nonetheless, seemed to completely change when she divorced her husband.
In Order To Come to Terms With the Loss of Her Husband In a Less Wearisome Manner, Teresa Made Up Her Mind To Start Hanging Around More Regularly With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Drink and Have Fun
Teresa got especially sad about the loss of her husband, and as a way to refrain from obsessing about her disheartening emotions she came to a decision that she would start going out more frequently with some of her pals who love to drink and have fun.
Quite forthrightly, Teresa figured that having fun nearly every day by drinking with her pals would help her come to terms with the divorce of her husband in a more pain free manner.
Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Significantly the More Routinely She Goes to Private Parties, Dinner Dates, Happy Hours, Sporting Events, and Family Get-Togethers With Her Pals
It didn’t take too long, nevertheless, before her drinking escalated significantly the more often she went to and drank at happy hours, family get-togethers, dinner dates, sporting events, and private parties with her friends. Not only this, but the fact that her drinking buddies were all many years younger than she was and therefore able to drink more frequently and harder was one of the reasons that she didn’t center more of her attention on her increased drinking. In brief, she was drinking and having a ton of fun just like everybody else in her group of buddies without giving too much consideration about the unhealthy effects of her drinking behavior.
Yet somewhere in the recesses of her mind she realized that she most probably required alcohol counseling but avoided the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical, Owns up to the Truth About Her Irresponsible and Abusive Drinking to Her Doctor, and ”Comes Clean” About Her Dejection
One late afternoon during her annual physical, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell falsehoods to her doctor, Teresa owned up to the fact that she commonly drinks more than she should. In actual fact, she articulated that she commonly drinks in an irresponsible and abusive manner. Then Teresa told her physician about her sadness. More plainly, she mentioned that wrecked relationships many times elicited a depressing cycle of events characterized by increased drinking which further led to more negative feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is exactly what took place when she and her husband got divorced ten months ago.
When her physician heard this, he informed Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was reviewing, alcoholism and depression frequently happen in the same person. He then told Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been reading about also underline the fact that individuals who drink in an abusive and hazardous manner and who also go through depression need to get treatment for both medical circumstances.
Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Makes an Appointment for a Psychological Assessment and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Assessment
Teresa’s healthcare professional then said the following: “I am not trying to make an overly quick analysis, but with your medical situation we may be facing two separate problems. As a consequence, I think we need to make an appointment for you to get an alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse evaluation from my partner, Dr. Stern, who is an alcohol addiction specialist. Whether your drinking situation is more associated with alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction is unknown at this time, but I think that further exploration is reasonable. Then I believe we probably should schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Nardi, who is a psychologist. I want to get a better read on your sadness and see how much your depression and drinking are correlated.” Teresa displayed her satisfaction with her physician’s treatment plan and thanked him for his time and concern.
In reality, Teresa now felt a sense of personal self esteem and happiness because she finally got inspired to do something positive about her excessive drinking and her depression. Not only this, but Teresa also realized that after alcohol rehabilitation she would be more able to establish solid dating relationships and friendships. Now all she had to do was to try to lessen her drinking and wait for her appointments.
