A Woman Exhibits Signs of Depression and Alcohol Dependency and Makes an Appointment to See Her Medical Practitioner About Her Drinking Issues
Teresa was a thirty-two-year-old loan officer who realized that she had some drinking issues. For example, within the past five months she has experienced the need to have a few drinks before going to work, six weeks ago she failed a random breathalyzer test where she is employed, three months ago she got stopped by the state highway patrol for a DWI, and lastly, for approximately two months she has begun to forget what she does and says when she drinks with her friends.
Like other people, Teresa’s involvement with alcohol began slowly and remained at this tempo for quite some time because sometimes she engaged in intermittent social drinking. In fact, for nearly three years, every time she went out to drink, she made sure to drink in a responsible manner. Something about her drinking situation, nonetheless, seemed to radically change when she got divorced from her husband.
In Order To Endure the Loss of Her Husband With Less Sorrow, Teresa Made Up Her Mind To Start Associating More Frequently With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Drink
Teresa got especially “down” about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to stop her preoccupation with her discouraging feelings she made up her mind to begin palling around more routinely with some of her buddies who love to whoop it up and drink.
Quite candidly, Teresa reasoned that having fun almost every day by drinking with her pals would help her rise above the loss of her husband more rapidly.
Teresa’s Drinking Escalates Considerably the More Frequently She Goes to Dinner Dates, Private Parties, Happy Hours, Sporting Events, and Family Get-Togethers With Her Friends
It didn’t take long, nonetheless, before her drinking escalated to a significant degree the more routinely she went to and drank at private parties, happy hours, family get-togethers, dinner dates, and sporting events with her friends. What is more, the fact that her drinking pals were all considerably younger than she was and therefore able to party and drink more irresponsibly was one of the reasons why she didn’t concentrate more on her increased drinking. To put it briefly, she was drinking and having a lot of fun just like everybody else in her group of friends without spending a lot of time thinking about the unhealthy effects of her excessive drinking.
Yet in the back of her mind she realized that she probably required alcohol treatment but avoided the thought as much as she could.
Teresa Gets a Physical, Admits Her Abusive and Irresponsible Drinking to Her Physician, and Owns Up to the Truth About Her Depression
One day during her six-month physical, her physician asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her doctor, Teresa admitted that she commonly drinks more than she should. In reality, she articulated that she commonly drinks in a hazardous and irresponsible manner. Then Teresa told her physician about her general state of despair. More plainly, she stated that wrecked relationships frequently started a negative cycle of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more dismal feelings that, in turn, resulted in even more drinking. And this is explicitly what took place when she and her husband got divorced five months ago.
When her healthcare professional heard this, he informed Teresa that according to various facts and statistics on alcoholism he has been researching, alcoholism and depression routinely come about in the same person. He then told her that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been looking into also underscore the fact that people who drink in an excessive and irresponsible manner and who also suffer from depression need to receive treatment for both medical circumstances.
Teresa’s Doctor Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Appraisal and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Evaluation
Teresa’s physician then stated the following: “I am not trying to make an unprepared diagnosis, but with your medical condition we may be facing two separate problems. As a result, I think we ought to schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse assessment from my partner, Dr. Wallace, who is a drug and alcohol abuse specialist. Whether your drinking situation is more linked to alcoholism or alcohol abuse is unknown, but I feel that further exploration is justifiable. Then I think we probably should make an appointment for you to get a psychological examination from another one of my partners, Dr. Rinkel, who is a counseling psychologist. I want to get some additional information about your sadness and see how much your depression and drinking are related.” Teresa expressed her agreement with her doctor’s line of attack and thanked him for his assistance and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to decrease her drinking and get ready for her appointments.