A Woman Exhibits Signs Of Depression And Alcohol Abuse And Gets Motivated About Making An Appointment To See Her Healthcare Practitioner About Her Abusive And Hazardous Drinking
Teresa was a thirty-five-year-old bookkeeper who knew that she had a problem with her drinking. As an illustration, within the past four months she has experienced the need to have quite a few drinks before going to work, three weeks ago she failed a random hair alcohol test at her place of employment, two weeks ago she got arrested by the state highway patrol for “driving under the influence”, and lastly, for the last six months she has begun to fail to remember what she does and says when she goes out drinking with her friends.
Like hosts of other drinkers, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol started out gradually and remained at this speed for quite a long period of time because once in a “blue moon” she engaged in intermittent social drinking. As a matter of fact, for approximately three years, every time she drank, she made sure to drink in moderation. Something about her drinking behavior, however, seemed to completely change when her husband divorced her.
So She Can Overcome the Divorce of Her Husband With Less Misery, Teresa Made Up Her Mind That She Will Start Going Out More Repeatedly With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Have Fun Drinking
Teresa got awfully disheartened about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to refrain from dwelling on her depressing emotions she made up her mind to begin hanging out more frequently with some of her friends who love to have fun and drink.
Quite honestly, Teresa believed that having fun almost every day by partying and drinking with her friends would help her rise above the loss of her husband in a less wearisome manner.
Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Significantly the More Frequently She Goes to Private Parties, Sporting Events, Happy Hours, Family Get-Togethers, and Dinner Dates With Her Pals
It didn’t take too long, nevertheless, before her drinking escalated to a significant extent the more frequently she went to and drank at sporting events, private parties, happy hours, dinner dates, and family get-togethers with her buddies. Moreover, the fact that her drinking pals were all quite a few years younger than she was and therefore able to party and drink harder and more frequently was one of the reasons that she didn’t concentrate more on her increased drinking. Simply put, she was drinking and having a great time just like everybody else in her group of friends without much reflection about the unhealthy results of her abusive and excessive drinking.
Yet someplace in her mind she realized that she most likely needed alcohol counseling but sidestepped the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical, Owns up to the Truth About Her Abusive and Hazardous Drinking to Her Healthcare Professional, and Owns Up to the Truth About Her Dejection
One late afternoon during her annual physical exam, her healthcare practitioner asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to lie to her physician, Teresa acknowledged that she commonly drinks more than she should. In actual fact, she said that she frequently drinks in an abusive manner. Then Teresa informed her healthcare practitioner about her depression. More plainly, she stated that wrecked relationships more often than not triggered a negative cycle of events characterized by increased drinking which further resulted in more dismal feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is explicitly what took place when her husband and she got divorced three years ago.
When her healthcare practitioner heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was investigating, alcoholism and depression commonly happen in the same person. He then told her that some of the alcohol statistics, facts, and research investigations he has been studying also highlight the fact that people who drink in a hazardous and abusive manner and who also suffer from depression need to get treatment for both medical conditions.
Teresa’s Doctor Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Appraisal and For an Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Appraisal
Teresa’s healthcare professional then said the following: “I am not trying to make an unprofessional analysis, but with your medical situation we may be confronting two separate matters. Consequently, I think we ought to schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse assessment from my partner, Dr. Fox, who is an alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency specialist. Whether your drinking problem is more associated with alcohol dependency or alcohol abuse is unknown at this time, but I believe that further exploration is defensible. Then I believe we probably should schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological assessment from another one of my partners, Dr. Dubas, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get some additional information about your pessimism and see how much your depression and drinking are intertwined.” Teresa showed her endorsement of her doctor’s plan of attack and thanked him for his time and assistance. Now all she had to do was to try to decrease her drinking and wait for her appointments.