Teresa was a forty-one-year-old recreation therapist who knew that she had some drinking issues. For example, within the past seven months she has experienced the need to have more than a few drinks before going to work, three weeks ago she failed a random blood alcohol test where she works, five weeks ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for a DUI, and finally, for roughly five months she has begun to fail to remember what she does and says when she drinks with her pals.
Not unlike multitudes of other individuals, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol began gradually and remained at this pace for quite some time due to the fact every so often she engaged in casual social drinking. In reality, for about nine months, every time she went out with her buddies to drink, she made sure to drink in a responsible manner. Something about her drinking behavior, however, seemed to drastically change when her husband divorced her.
In Order To Get Beyond the Divorce of Her Husband In a More Trouble-Free Manner, Teresa Decided to Start Palling Around More Routinely With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Drink and Have Fun
Teresa got dreadfully despondent about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to abstain from dwelling on her disheartening emotions she decided to begin going out more repeatedly with some of her pals who love to drink and have fun.
Quite forthrightly, Teresa figured that having fun nearly every day by drinking and partying with her friends would help her recover from the breakup of her husband in a less wearisome manner.
Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Significantly the More Often She Goes to Private Parties, Sporting Events, Happy Hours, Family Get-Togethers, and Dinner Dates With Her Buddies
It didn’t take long, however, before her drinking increased considerably the more frequently she went to and drank at sporting events, family get-togethers, private parties, happy hours, and dinner dates with her pals. Not only this, but the fact that her drinking friends were all considerably younger than she was and therefore able to party and drink more irresponsibly was one of the reasons why she didn’t allocate more of her attention to her increased drinking. In a word, she was drinking and having lots of fun just like everybody else in her group of pals without spending a lot of time thinking about the results of her abusive drinking.
Yet in the back of her mind she realized that she most likely required alcohol rehabilitation but kept away from the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical Exam, Discloses the Truth About Her Drinking to Her Healthcare Practitioner, and Owns Up to the Truth About Her General State of Despair
One afternoon during her yearly physical, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her physician, Teresa admitted that she routinely drinks more than she should. In reality, she said that she commonly drinks in a hazardous and abusive manner. Then Teresa told her healthcare practitioner about her depression. More plainly, she stated that broken relationships often elicited a depressing cycle of events typified by increased drinking which further led to more depressing feelings that, in turn, led to more drinking. And this is specifically what took place when she and her husband got divorced eight months ago.
When her healthcare practitioner heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was researching, alcoholism and depression often happen in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been studying also emphasize the fact that people who drink in a hazardous and abusive manner and who also suffer from depression need to obtain treatment for both medical circumstances.
Teresa’s Doctor Makes an Appointment for a Psychological Assessment and For an Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse Appraisal
Teresa’s doctor then stated the following: “I am not trying to make a spur-of-the-moment analysis, but with your medical circumstances we may be dealing with two separate matters. As a result, I think we should schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol abuse and alcoholism assessment from my partner, Dr. Hults, who is a drug and alcohol abuse specialist. Whether your drinking circumstance is more linked to alcohol dependency or alcohol abuse is unclear, but I feel that further assessment is required. Then I feel we ought to make an appointment for you to get a psychological assessment from another one of my partners, Dr. Rossi, who is a counseling psychologist. I want to get a better handle on your melancholy and see how much your depression and drinking are related.” Teresa expressed her agreement with her healthcare practitioner’s strategy and thanked him for his help.
In reality, Teresa now experienced a sense of increased spirituality and personal success because she finally got inspired to do something constructive about her excessive and abusive drinking and her depression. Now all she had to do was to try to reduce her drinking and get ready for her appointments.
