A Woman Exhibits Signs of Alcohol Abuse and Depression and Makes an Appointment to See Her Healthcare Practitioner About Her Hazardous and Irresponsible Drinking
Posted by Depressed - 30/06/09 at 08:06 pmTeresa was a forty-four-year-old physical therapist who realized that she had some drinking issues. For example, within the past two months she has felt the need to have more than a few drinks before going to work, two months ago she tested positive for a saliva alcohol test at work, four weeks ago she got stopped by the police for “driving under the influence”, and last but not least, for the last five months she has started to forget what she says and does when she drinks with her buddies.
Similar to many other individuals, Teresa’s alcohol involvement started out at a “snail’s pace” and continued at this speed for quite a long period of time because sometimes she engaged in occasional social drinking. In reality, for approximately three years, every time she drank, she made sure to drink responsibly. Something about her drinking, however, seemed to fundamentally change when her husband divorced her.
So She Can Rise Above the Breakup of Her Husband With Less Sorrow, Teresa Decided to Start Going Out More Frequently With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Have Fun Drinking
Teresa got extremely down in the dumps about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to stop fixating on her depressing feelings she came to a decision that she would start hanging out more often with some of her friends who love to drink and have fun.
Quite honestly, Teresa believed that having fun nearly every day by drinking and partying with her pals would help her rise above the loss of her husband in a less troublesome manner.
Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Greatly the More Frequently She Goes to Family Get-Togethers, Private Parties, Sporting Events, Happy Hours, and Dinner Dates With Her Buddies
It didn’t take very long, nonetheless, before her drinking increased significantly the more routinely she went to and drank at dinner dates, family get-togethers, sporting events, happy hours, and private parties with her friends. Furthermore, the fact that her drinking friends were all much younger than she was and therefore able to party harder and longer was one of the reasons that she didn’t concentrate more on her increased drinking. Simply put, she was drinking and having tons of fun just like everyone else in her group of friends without paying much attention to the unhealthy effects of her hazardous and irresponsible drinking.
Yet someplace in her brain she knew that she most probably needed alcohol rehab but steered clear of the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Acknowledges Her Abusive and Irresponsible Drinking to Her Physician, and ”Comes Clean” About Her Sadness
One afternoon during her six-month physical examination, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her physician, Teresa admitted that she often drinks more than she should. In fact, she said that she frequently drinks in a hazardous and abusive manner. Then Teresa told her physician about her general state of gloom. More specifically, she stated that wrecked relationships more often than not caused a negative chain of events characterized by increased drinking which further led to more disheartening feelings that, in turn, resulted in even more drinking. And this is explicitly what took place when she and her husband got divorced three months ago.
When her healthcare professional heard this, he told Teresa that according to various facts and statistics on alcoholism he has been researching, alcoholism and depression many times arise in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been looking into also underscore the fact that individuals who drink abusively and who also experience depression need to obtain treatment for both medical situations.
Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Appraisal
Teresa’s healthcare professional then told her the following: “I am not trying to make a spur-of-the-moment diagnosis, but with your medical circumstances we may be dealing with two separate problems. As a consequence, I think we ought to schedule an appointment for you to get an alcoholism and alcohol abuse evaluation from my partner, Dr. Jackson, who is a chemical dependency and substance abuse specialist. Whether your drinking problem is more related to alcoholism or alcohol abuse is unknown, but I think that further assessment is justifiable. Then I believe we should schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological evaluation from another one of my partners, Dr. Reyes, who is a psychologist. I want to get a better grip on your dejection and see how much your depression and drinking are interrelated.” Teresa showed her satisfaction with her healthcare professional’s treatment approach and thanked him for his help and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to lessen her drinking and wait for her appointments.
