Teresa was a thirty-year-old insurance agent who knew that she had a drinking problem. For example, within the past five months she has felt the need to have a drink or two before going to work, six weeks ago she tested positive for a breathalyzer test at her place of employment, two weeks ago she got pulled over by the police for “driving under the influence”, and lastly, for the last three months she has started to forget what she does and says when she goes out drinking.
Similar to hosts of other drinkers, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol began little by little and remained at this speed for quite some time because every now and then she engaged in occasional social drinking. If truth be told, for about four years, every time she went out with her buddies to drink, she made sure to drink moderately. Something about her drinking activities, nonetheless, seemed to drastically change when she got divorced from her husband.
In Order To Overcome the Divorce of Her Husband With Less Sorrow, Teresa Came to the Conclusion That She Will Begin Palling Around More Frequently With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Have Fun and Drink
Teresa got awfully down in the dumps about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to abstain from fixating on her dismal feelings she came to the conclusion that she would start palling around more often with some of her buddies who love to drink.
Quite frankly, Teresa figured that having fun almost every day by drinking with her buddies would help her recover from the divorce of her husband with less grief.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases Considerably the More Frequently She Goes to Happy Hours, Dinner Dates, Family Get-Togethers, Sporting Events, and Private Parties With Her Buddies
It didn’t take very long, nevertheless, before her drinking increased to a significant extent the more habitually she went to and drank at family get-togethers, happy hours, sporting events, dinner dates, and private parties with her pals. In addition, the fact that her drinking friends were all quite a bit younger than she was and therefore able to drink harder and longer was one of the reasons that she didn’t allocate more of her attention to her increased drinking. Simply put, she was drinking and having a lot of fun just like everyone else in her group of pals without spending a lot of time thinking about the negative results of her hazardous and abusive drinking.
Yet someplace in her mind she realized that she most probably needed alcohol rehabilitation but sidestepped the thought as much as possible.
Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Discloses the Truth About Her Irresponsible and Excessive Drinking to Her Healthcare Professional, and Owns Up to the Truth About Her Depression
One afternoon during her yearly physical, her healthcare professional asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her doctor, Teresa ”came clean” and said that she regularly drinks more than she should. If truth be told, she said that she frequently drinks in an abusive and irresponsible manner. Then Teresa informed her healthcare professional about her constant negativity. More plainly, she mentioned that ruined relationships many times generated a dismal sequence of events characterized by increased drinking which further led to more disheartening feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is specifically what took place when she and her husband got divorced five months ago.
When her doctor heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was investigating, alcoholism and depression routinely happen in the same person. He then told Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, facts, and research investigations he has been reading about also emphasize the fact that individuals who drink in a hazardous and irresponsible manner and who also go through depression need to obtain treatment for both medical circumstances.
Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Evaluation
Teresa’s healthcare professional then told her the following: “I am not trying to make an overly quick diagnosis, but with your medical circumstances we may be facing two separate problems. As a consequence, I think we should schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol abuse and alcoholism assessment from my partner, Dr. Harmon, who is an alcohol and drug abuse specialist. Whether your drinking situation is more correlated with alcoholism or alcohol abuse is unknown at this time, but I believe that further exploration is needed. Then I believe we probably should make an appointment for you to get a psychological examination from another one of my partners, Dr. Hauser, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get some more insights about your depression and see how much your drinking and depression are interrelated.” Teresa expressed her agreement with her healthcare professional’s treatment strategy and thanked him for his time and assistance. Now all she had to do was to try to trim down on her drinking and wait for her appointments.