Teresa was a forty-three-year-old floral designer who knew that she had a problem with her drinking. For example, within the past three months she has experienced the need to have one or two drinks before going to work, six weeks ago she failed to pass a random saliva alcohol test where she works, four months ago she got arrested by the police for a DUI, and last but not least, for about two months she has begun to forget what she does and says when she goes out drinking.
Not unlike other individuals, Teresa’s alcohol involvement started out slowly and remained at this pace for quite a long time because from time to time she engaged in intermittent social drinking. As a matter of fact, for nearly eight months, every time she went out with her coworkers to drink, she made sure to drink responsibly. Something about her drinking, however, seemed to fundamentally change when she got divorced from her husband.
In Order To Overcome the Divorce of Her Husband In a More Uncomplicated Manner, Teresa Came to the Conclusion That She Will Begin Palling Around More Routinely With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Party
Teresa got extremely “down” about the breakup with her husband, and as a way to abstain from obsessing about her disheartening emotions she made up her mind that she would begin hanging out more often with some of her friends who love to drink and have fun.
Quite frankly, Teresa reasoned that having fun just about every day by drinking with her friends would help her overcome the breakup of her husband more quickly.
Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Substantially the More Often She Goes to Dinner Dates, Sporting Events, Happy Hours, Private Parties, and Family Get-Togethers With Her Buddies
It didn’t take too long, nonetheless, before her drinking escalated substantially the more routinely she went to and drank at sporting events, dinner dates, happy hours, private parties, and family get-togethers with her buddies. In addition, the fact that her drinking pals were all many years younger than she was and therefore able to drink and party harder and more frequently was one of the reasons that she didn’t concentrate more on her increased drinking. In brief, she was having lots of fun drinking just like everybody else in her group of friends without much reflection about the negative consequences of her irresponsible and excessive drinking.
Yet somewhere in the recesses of her brain she knew that she most probably required alcohol treatment but stayed away from the thought as much as humanly possible.
Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Admits Her Abusive Drinking to Her Healthcare Practitioner, and ”Comes Clean” About Her General State of Gloom
One day during her twelve month physical exam, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell falsehoods to her doctor, Teresa acknowledged that she frequently drinks more than she should. If truth be told, she said that she routinely drinks in a hazardous and irresponsible manner. Then Teresa told her physician about her melancholy. More explicitly, she articulated that wrecked relationships usually caused a disheartening sequence of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more dismal feelings that, in turn, led to more drinking. And this is exactly what happened when she and her husband got divorced six months ago.
When her doctor heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was researching, alcoholism and depression routinely take place in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been looking into also highlight the fact that people who drink in an irresponsible and abusive manner and who also go through depression need to get treatment for both medical situations.
Teresa’s Physician Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Appraisal
Teresa’s healthcare practitioner then told her the following: “I am not trying to make a snap judgment, but with your medical condition we may be working with two separate issues. As a consequence, I think we ought to make an appointment for you to get an alcoholism and alcohol abuse appraisal from my partner, Dr. Galloway, who is an alcohol abuse and substance abuse specialist. Whether your drinking problem is more correlated with alcohol abuse or alcohol dependency is unknown at this time, but I think that further exploration is defensible. Then I feel we ought to schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Manning, who is a counseling psychologist. I want to get a better handle on your sadness and see how much your depression and drinking are interlinked.” Teresa showed her agreement with her healthcare professional’s treatment strategy and thanked him for his assistance and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to decrease her drinking and wait for her appointments.
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