Teresa was a forty-eight-year-old marketing manager who realized that she had some problems with her drinking. As an illustration, within the past month she has felt the need to have more than a few drinks before going to work, three weeks ago she failed a random breathalyzer test at work, three weeks ago she got pulled over by the police for “driving under the influence”, and finally, for roughly seven months she has started to fail to remember what she does and says when she goes out drinking with her pals.
Not unlike huge numbers of other people, Teresa’s alcohol involvement started out little by little and continued at this speed for quite some time due to the fact every now and again she engaged in sporadic social drinking. As a matter of fact, for almost ten months, every time she drank, she made sure to drink moderately. Something about her drinking activities, however, seemed to fundamentally change when she divorced her husband.
In Order To Get Over the Loss of Her Husband In a Less Wearisome Manner, Teresa Made Up Her Mind To Start Associating More Regularly With Some of Her Buddies Who Love to Party
Teresa got dreadfully down in the dumps about the loss of her husband, and as a way to abstain from her preoccupation with her discouraging emotions she determined that she would start hanging around more often with some of her buddies who love to have fun and drink.
Quite honestly, Teresa believed that having fun almost every day by getting a “buzz” by drinking with her friends would help her recover from the breakup of her husband with less grief.
Time, Anger, and Stress Management Issues
Teresa also thought that getting an alcohol “buzz” with her buddies would help her steer clear of her time, stress, and anger management problems.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases 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 long, however, before her drinking increased to a significant degree the more often she went to and drank at happy hours, private parties, family get-togethers, dinner dates, and sporting events with her pals. Not only this, but the fact that her drinking buddies were all many years younger than she was and therefore able to party and drink harder and longer was one of the reasons that she didn’t center more of her attention on her increased drinking. In brief, she was having a blast drinking just like everybody else in her group of pals without giving much thought to the unhealthy effects of her irresponsible and excessive drinking.
Yet someplace in her awareness she realized that she most probably needed alcohol counseling but sidestepped the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical Exam, Acknowledges Her Irresponsible and Excessive Drinking to Her Physician, and Discloses the Truth About Her General State of Despair
One afternoon during her six-month physical exam, 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 point of fact, she stated that she regularly drinks in an irresponsible manner. Then Teresa told her doctor about her depression. More plainly, she mentioned that ruined relationships many times sparked a dismal chain of events characterized by increased drinking which further resulted in more disheartening feelings that, in turn, led to more drinking. And this is specifically what happened when she and her husband got divorced four months ago.
When her healthcare professional heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was examining, alcoholism and depression frequently occur in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been looking into also stress the fact that people who drink in a hazardous and excessive manner and who also go through depression need to obtain treatment for both medical circumstances.
Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Makes an Appointment for a Psychological Assessment and For an Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse Appraisal
Teresa’s healthcare professional then said the following: “I am not trying to make a snap diagnosis, but with your medical situation we may be facing two separate problems. Consequently, I think we need to schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse assessment from my partner, Dr. Bornhorst, who is an alcohol abuse and substance abuse specialist. Whether your drinking circumstance is more linked to alcohol addiction or alcohol abuse is unknown, but I think that further exploration is needed. Then I think we need to make an appointment for you to get a psychological evaluation from another one of my partners, Dr. Frankel, who is a psychologist. I want to get a deeper understanding about your depression and see how much your drinking and depression are associated.” Teresa showed her endorsement of her doctor’s plan of attack and thanked him for his assistance.
Teresa Faces Her Time, Anger, and Stress Management Problems
In truth, Teresa now felt a sense of personal happiness and self esteem because she finally became inspired to do something positive about her abusive and excessive drinking and her depression. Not only this, but Teresa also knew that after alcohol rehabilitation she would be better able to address her time, anger, and stress management problems. Now all she had to do was to try to cut back on her drinking and get ready for her appointments.