A Woman Displays Symptoms of Alcohol Dependency and Depression and Schedules an Appointment to See Her Doctor About Her Hazardous and Abusive Drinking

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Teresa was a forty-nine-year-old recreation therapist who knew that she had a problem with her drinking. As an illustration, within the past month she has experienced the need to have three or four drinks before going to work, three weeks ago she tested positive for a breathalyzer test at her place of employment, four weeks ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for a DWI, and last but not least, for roughly four months she has started to forget what she says and does when she goes out drinking with her friends.

Like multitudes of other people, Teresa’s experiences with alcohol began gradually and continued at this level for quite some time due to the fact every once in a while she engaged in sporadic social drinking. In fact, for approximately a year, every time she went out with her coworkers to drink, she made sure to drink in a responsible manner. Something about her drinking behavior, however, seemed to totally change when she divorced her husband.

In Order To Recover From the Loss of Her Husband In a More Pain Free Manner, Teresa Made Up Her Mind To Begin Going Out More Frequently With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Have Fun and Drink

Teresa got dreadfully depressed about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to stop dwelling on her negative feelings she decided to start going out more regularly with some of her friends who love to ”get down” and drink.

Quite forthrightly, Teresa concluded that having fun nearly every day by drinking and partying with her buddies would help her get beyond the divorce of her husband more quickly.

Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Substantially the More Frequently She Goes to Family Get-Togethers, Dinner Dates, Private Parties, Happy Hours, and Sporting Events With Her Pals

It didn’t take very long, nevertheless, before her drinking increased substantially the more routinely she went to and drank at private parties, family get-togethers, happy hours, dinner dates, and sporting events with her friends. Furthermore, the fact that her drinking buddies were all younger than she was and therefore able to party more intensely was one of the reasons that she didn’t direct more of her attention to her increased drinking. To be brief, she was drinking and having lots of fun just like everyone else in her group of pals without giving too much thought to the effects of her irresponsible and excessive drinking.

Yet someplace in her awareness she knew that she most likely needed alcohol rehabilitation but sidestepped the thought as much as she could.

Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Acknowledges Her Drinking to Her Healthcare Practitioner, and Admits Her Melancholy

One late afternoon during her annual physical examination, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to lie to her doctor, Teresa ”came clean” and said that she frequently drinks more than she should. As a matter of fact, she stated that she routinely drinks in a hazardous and irresponsible manner. Then Teresa told her healthcare professional about her depression. More plainly, she mentioned that shattered relationships commonly set off a negative sequence of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more dismal feelings that, in turn, resulted in even more drinking. And this is precisely what happened when her husband and she got divorced eight months ago.

When her healthcare professional heard this, he told Teresa that according to various facts and statistics on alcoholism he has been investigating, alcoholism and depression often happen in the same individual. He then told Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been studying also stress 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 conditions.

Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Evaluation

Teresa’s physician then stated the following: “I am not trying to make a sudden analysis, but with your medical circumstances we may be dealing with two separate matters. As a consequence, I think we need to schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse appraisal from my partner, Dr. Petroff, who is an alcohol abuse and alcoholism specialist. Whether your drinking problem is more related to alcohol abuse or alcohol dependency is unknown, but I think that further assessment is warranted. Then I believe we probably should make an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Devor, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get a deeper understanding about your pessimism and see how much your depression and drinking are interlinked.” Teresa showed her agreement with her doctor’s treatment approach and thanked him for his help. Now all she had to do was to try to lessen her drinking and get ready for her appointments.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.