Teresa was a forty-nine-year-old financial planner who knew that she had some drinking issues. For instance, within the past seven months she has experienced the need to have more than a few drinks before going to work, seven weeks ago she failed to pass a random urine alcohol test at work, four months ago she got pulled over by the state highway patrol for “driving under the influence,” and last but not least, for the past two months she has started to fail to remember what she does and says when she drinks with her pals.
Like many other individuals, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol started out gradually and remained at this tempo for quite a long time due to the fact every once in a while she engaged in sporadic social drinking. In fact, for almost ten months, every time she went out with her buddies to drink, she made sure to drink in moderation. Something about her drinking situation, nonetheless, seemed to radically change when she divorced her husband.
In Order To Recover From the Loss of Her Husband With Less Distress, Teresa Decided to Begin Associating More Regularly With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Whoop it Up and Drink
Teresa got awfully down in the dumps about the loss of her husband, and as a way to quit fixating on her disheartening feelings she came to the conclusion that she would start associating more often with some of her buddies who love to have fun and drink.
Quite candidly, Teresa figured that having fun nearly every day by getting a “buzz” by drinking with her friends would help her get over the loss of her husband with less sorrow.
Stress, Time, and Anger Management Difficulties
Teresa also thought that getting a “buzz” by drinking with her friends would help her avoid her stress, time, and anger management problems.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases Considerably the More Often She Goes to Happy Hours, Private Parties, Family Get-Togethers, Dinner Dates, and Sporting Events With Her Friends
It didn’t take long, nonetheless, before her drinking increased to a significant degree the more often she went to and drank at private parties, happy hours, sporting events, dinner dates, and family get-togethers with her pals. What is more, the fact that her drinking pals were all quite a bit younger than she was and therefore able to party more irresponsibly was one of the reasons that she didn’t direct more of her attention to her increased drinking. In brief, she was partying just like everyone else in her group of friends without much reflection about the negative effects of her irresponsible and excessive drinking.
Yet in the back of her mind she knew that she most probably required alcohol rehabilitation but stayed away from the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical, ”Comes Clean” About Her Hazardous and Irresponsible Drinking to Her Doctor, and Owns up to the Facts About Her Melancholy
One afternoon during her six-month physical, her healthcare practitioner asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell falsehoods to her healthcare professional, Teresa owned up to the fact that she often drinks more than she should. In point of fact, she said that she commonly drinks in an excessive and abusive manner. Then Teresa informed her healthcare practitioner about her depression. More specifically, she articulated that wrecked relationships often started a discouraging sequence of events typified by increased drinking which further led to more depressing feelings that, in turn, resulted in more drinking. And this is explicitly what took place when she and her husband got divorced five years ago.
When her doctor heard this, he informed Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was examining, alcoholism and depression frequently take place in the same person. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, facts, and research investigations he has been looking into also point out that people who drink in an excessive and hazardous manner and who also experience depression need to obtain treatment for both medical situations.
Teresa’s Healthcare Professional Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Assessment
Teresa’s healthcare professional then told her the following: “I am not trying to make an impulsive judgment, but with your medical condition we may be confronting two separate matters. As a consequence, I think we need to make an appointment for you to get an alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency assessment from my partner, Dr. Franks, who is a chemical dependency and substance abuse specialist. Keep in mind that you may require alcohol detox. Whether your drinking problem is more related to alcohol addiction or alcohol abuse is unclear, but I feel that further exploration is needed. Then I think we should schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological examination from another one of my partners, Dr. Schmidt, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get some more information about your depression and see how much your drinking and depression are correlated.” Teresa showed her satisfaction with her healthcare practitioner’s treatment plan and thanked him for his time and assistance.
Teresa Confronts the Conflict and the Sexuality Issues When She Was Married
In truth, Teresa now felt a sense of personal self esteem and happiness because she finally got inspired to do something positive about her drinking problems and her depression. What is more, Teresa also knew that after alcohol rehab she would be more able to confront the conflict and the sexuality difficulties when she was married. Now all she had to do was to try to cut back on her drinking and wait for her appointments.
Mail this postHow do you know that you have a drinking problem? When is it obvious that you are engaging in abusive drinking?
If you have ineffectively made an effort to quit drinking or if you have given your word to yourself that your drinking days are gone and then you recognized that you were drinking abusively just a few days later, the odds are especially good that you have drinking problems. The fundamental idea is that if you have made an effort to terminate your drinking and cannot get this accomplished, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.
Similarly, if it takes greater amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” more likely than not you need to become aware that you have a drinking problem.
You may be telling yourself that the reason for your drinking is so that you can lower your apprehension or get rid of the pain that you feel. In much the same way, you may be trying to avoid a negative situation and may be looking for something more useful, more constructive, or less mournful.
As you continue to drink, however, you will realize that drinking does not result in the same high and you will also become aware that drinking doesn’t help remove whatever elicited your misery in the first place.
As you continue to drink in an excessive manner, sadly, you may become an alcoholic and, as a result, you may add another important difficulty to deal with rather than finding out about more efficient and healthy ways of managing your alcohol-related difficulties.
The Need for an Alcohol Appraisal
If you have concluded that you have a problem with your drinking, possibly the best thing you can do for yourself is to call your medical doctor or healthcare provider and arrange for an appointment for a thorough physical and for a review of your drinking situation.
If you honestly think that you have a serious drinking problem, it may be a good idea to get prepared to find out that you need to get alcohol reahbilitation.
At this juncture, what are your options? You can definitely refuse to see your physician and persevere with your pattern of hazardous drinking.
It certainly doesn’t take a mastermind, then again, to understand that repeated, hazardous drinking, if left untreated, will get worse over time and almost certainly set in motion an early death. Therefore, your most beneficial alternative is to address your drinking problem and obtain the alcohol detoxification and the alcohol rehab you require.
The Pretext of the Functioning Alcohol Dependent Individual
It is almost counter intuitive to note the fact that several alcohol addicted people lead busy and active lives and have jobs, vehicles, pets, families, houses, and any number of material possessions similar to non-alcoholics.
Many of these “functional” alcohol addicted individuals may have never been arrested for drunk driving and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol generated legal predicaments. Despite this good fortune, nonetheless, these alcohol addicted individuals need to drink in order to function on a regular basis while maintaining their facade as they associate with people outside their family.
Ask anyone who has seen them when they are out on a drunken binge or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcoholism, nevertheless, and they will be quick to assert the validity of the drinker’s situation and the details about the alcohol dependent person’s drinking predicament and about his or her alcohol induced predicaments.
Why Do Alcohol Addicted People Fail to Deal With Their Drinking Difficulties?
As alcohol addiction research and statistics on alcohol abuse have emphasized, no matter how apparent the alcohol-related predicaments seem to those who interact with the alcohol dependent person, alcohol addicted people normally deny that drinking is the basis of their alcohol-related difficulties. Not only this, but alcohol addicted people regularly blame their alcohol induced problems on other people or upon other circumstances that surround them instead of seeing their part in the issue.
The source of the predicament is that alcoholism is a disease of the brain. Once the alcohol abuser has become addicted to alcohol, he or she normally resorts to denial, manipulation, and lying as a way of dealing with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make the situation more difficult, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms frequently counteracts the alcohol dependent individual’s rare attempts to abruptly abstain from drinking. As cheerless as the alcohol addicted person’s existence is, however, the encouraging news is that competent help is widely obtainable – if the alcoholic reaches out and seeks alcoholism therapy.
Conclusion
Admitting the fact that drinking is producing difficulties in your daily functioning is probably the easiest way to determine if you have a drinking problem. Stated another way, if your drinking is eliciting issues with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the legal system, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be addressed.
If you have a problem with your drinking, additionally, this means that you are involving yourself in abusive drinking.
While some individuals may be able to pinpoint their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their problems, and substantially diminish the quantity and frequency of their drinking, other individuals, conversely, need to address their drinking problems by getting quality alcoholism rehabilitation. Moreover, due to their tendency to deny the facts and warp the truth, alcohol dependent individuals undeniably require proficient alcohol rehab for their excessive drinking.
Mail this postBarry used to brag to his pals how he could keep a demanding and fulltime job and get drunk just about every night. Sadly, after engaging in this destructive lifestyle for approximately two-and-a-half years, he started to display a variety of alcohol related issues.
Barry Starts to Have Various Alcohol Related Problems
For instance, he had a real difficult time getting up for work because he felt so exhausted when he got up. Furthermore, just about every morning Barry suffered through an appalling hangover. Without a doubt, the combination of his lack of get-up-and-go and his hangovers did not make it easy for him to get up and feel inspired to go to work. To make matters worse, around a week ago he got his second drunk driving citation in the past thirteen weeks.
To complicate things further, at his job his last two performance appraisals were not up to his usual high standards. And lastly, his relationship with his girlfriend had deteriorated due to his depression, financial difficulties, lack of patience, and his angry outbursts.
Though Barry was only twenty-five years old, he honestly started looking like he was in his mid forties. Sadly, this is what irresponsible and excessive drinking can do to a person. And in all honesty he knew that he was suffering from the adverse consequences of alcohol dependency or alcohol abuse and that he was too young to throw away his life to abusive drinking. So initially he tried to drink in moderation. Regrettably, he soon grasped the fact that he lost his self control after consuming his first drink. Stated somewhat more forcefully, after his first drink he invariably proceeded to get smashed. Due to the fact that this was an incident that was repeated every time he went to a bar to drink, this greatly disturbed him. In fact, he began to wonder if he was manifesting some of the signs of alcoholism and alcohol abuse.
Barry Makes up His Mind To Schedule an Appointment to See His Doctor
After mentioning his excessive alcohol consumption and his careless and abusive drinking with his girlfriend, he eventually made up his mind to make an appointment to see his doctor. When Barry saw his healthcare professional, he frankly mentioned that he has been drinking in a hazardous manner, that he may be exhibiting alcoholic signs, that he wants to refrain from drinking. He then confirmed that drinking in moderation doesn’t work well for him and, consequently, he wants to learn how he can live without drinking alcohol.
Barry also told his family doctor about his depression and how this mental health issue was adversely influencing his relationship with his girlfriend. His doctor referred Barry to Doctor Masin, a drug and alcohol addiction therapist, who motivated Barry to enroll in a drug and alcohol rehab center as an in-patient for alcohol detoxification and alcohol rehabilitation. Fortunately, Barry would also be able to get medical attention for his depression at this treatment center.
Quitting Drinking Was the Best Decision Barry Had Ever Made
After four months of rigorous rehabilitation, Barry left the residential treatment facility and continued his recovery via going to local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and via outpatient counseling. Inspired to change his life in a more positive direction, Barry went to a health store and bought some vitamins and a cookbook. He then joined a gym and began working out three or four times per week. Within nine months Barry was a new person. He was eating nutritious meals, he wasn’t depressed anymore, he now looked younger than he was, he was in shape, and most significant of all, he remained sober for numerous months. He also became more patient, he didn’t resort to angry outbursts, and he became a more loving person in his relationship with his lady friend. In short, getting and staying sober was the best decision Barry had ever made.
Mail this postAugie and Merissa have been dating for six years. They met while taking the same global and international studies class at a relatively small, countryside, Church affiliated liberal arts college located in the far Western part of the U.S. While they were basically good pals at first, they finally started dating when they were in their first year of college.
Because both of them came from very conservative backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the social drinking stage when they first began dating. As the time passed by, then again, they began to go to more happy hours, keg parties, football bashes, and sorority and fraternity parties. As a consequence, they little by little began to drink increasingly more as time passed by.
Their Social Life Regularly Consisted of Going to Parties With Their Friends, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Professional Sporting Events, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Nightclub on the Weekends
After they graduated from college, they both landed jobs in a large city located roughly ninety-five miles from their undergraduate college. Then they finally determined that they would move into the same apartment together.
Since they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nevertheless, their social life commonly consisted of going to professional sporting events, going to restaurants three or four nights per week, going to parties with their friends, going to happy hour with their friends, and going to the local bar and grill with their friends on the weekends. Stated more explicitly, Merissa and Augie started to drink quite extensively.
Now that they were living in the same apartment together and starting to get more serious about their relationship, then again, they started thinking about becoming more responsible, buying a house, getting married, and having children.
With any noteworthy modification in an individual’s life there is generally something that activates the particular transformation in question. For Augie and Merissa the thought of having children and buying a new house was this “vehicle for change.” Simply put, for the first time in their lives, Augie and Merissa began to think about their irresponsible drinking and the long term alcohol effects on their health.
How Would Their Abusive and Heavy Drinking Affect Their Relationship With One Another, Their Ability to Have Children, Their Finances, Their Mental Health, and Their Relationship With Their Parents?
Would their excessive drinking adversely affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending most of their money on drinking if they were to begin saving for a new house? How mature would they be if they had children and continued to drink in a hazardous and excessive manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term dreams, aspirations, and hopes while they still drank in an irresponsible and abusive manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their heavy and excessive drinking do to their relationship? How would their excessive drinking affect their mental health?
From a different perspective, although neither one of them ever suffered from alcohol poisoning, received a DUI, or experienced alcohol withdrawals, they realized that their abusive and irresponsible drinking was becoming a troublesome issue that they could not ignore anymore.
After Giving Their Situation Considerable Thought, Augie and Merissa Grasped the Fact That Their Dreams, Aspirations, and Goals Would not be Accomplished if They Continued Their Heavy and Hazardous Drinking
All of these inquiries without a doubt resulted in the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to grasp the fact that they couldn’t continue their abusive and heavy drinking if their plans, hopes, and dreams were to be made real.
Once they arrived at this conclusion, they told their drinking friends about their marital plans, about their goal of buying or building a new house, and about their plans to start a family. They also told their drinking friends that they still wanted to pal around with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this time forward so that they could start realizing their future dreams, hopes, and plans.
Much to their disbelief, all of their friends expressed relief because they too had been taking into account the direction of their lives and concluded that their life-styles were much too often focused on drinking. They also felt that they would have to change fundamentally if they were to become more responsible and manifest more thoughtfulness for their health, their careers, and for their goals in the next fifteen or twenty years.
After their heart-to-heart conversation with their pals about their hopes, dreams, and plans, Augie and Merissa essentially started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their buddies. The main reason for this was the fact that all of them had a similar mindset regarding their abusive and hazardous drinking and their relatively short and long-term goals, plans, and aspirations.
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