A Woman Exhibits Symptoms of Alcohol Addiction and Depression and Schedules an Appointment to See Her Healthcare Practitioner About Her Abusive and Excessive Drinking

Teresa was a forty-eight-year-old insurance agent who knew that she had some drinking issues.  For instance, within the past month she has felt the need to have quite a few drinks before going to work, six weeks ago she failed a random saliva alcohol test where she works, three months ago she got arrested by the police for “driving under the influence”, and lastly, for almost three months she has begun to forget what she does and says when she drinks with her buddies.

Similar to multitudes of other individuals, Teresa’s involvement with alcohol began slowly and stayed at this pace for quite some time because from time to time she engaged in sporadic social drinking.  In fact, for nearly seven months, every time she went out with her buddies to drink, she made sure to drink responsibly.  Something about her drinking, nonetheless, seemed to radically change when she divorced her husband.

In Order To Get Over the Divorce of Her Husband In a More Uncomplicated Manner, Teresa Made Up Her Mind That She Will Begin Going Out More Frequently With Some of Her Friends Who Love to ”Get Down” and Drink

Teresa got especially gloomy about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to stop dwelling on her negative emotions she came to the conclusion that she would start hanging around more regularly with some of her buddies who love to drink.

Quite candidly, Teresa thought that having fun nearly every day by drinking and partying with her buddies would help her get over the loss of her husband in a less wearisome manner.

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

It didn’t take too long, however, before her drinking escalated considerably the more routinely she went to and drank at happy hours, private parties, sporting events, family get-togethers, and dinner dates with her pals.  What is more, the fact that her drinking buddies were all younger than she was and therefore able to drink more intensely was one of the reasons that she didn’t focus more on her increased drinking.  To be brief, she was drinking and having tons of fun just like everyone else in her group of pals without giving too much thought to the results of her irresponsible drinking.

Yet somewhere in the recesses of her mind she realized that she probably required alcohol treatment but avoided the thought as much as possible.

Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Owns Up to the Facts About Her Abusive and Excessive Drinking to Her Physician, and ”Comes Clean” About Her General State of Despair

One afternoon during her yearly physical examination, her healthcare practitioner asked her if she drank alcohol.  Not wanting to lie to her healthcare professional, Teresa admitted that she commonly drinks more than she should.  If truth be told, she said that she frequently drinks in an abusive and irresponsible manner.  Then Teresa informed her healthcare practitioner about her dejection.  More to the point, she stated that shattered relationships often set off a discouraging cycle of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more negative feelings that, in turn, resulted in even more drinking.  And this is specifically what happened when she and her husband got divorced two years ago.

When her physician heard this, he informed Teresa that according to various facts and statistics on alcoholism he has been exploring, alcoholism and depression often take place in the same individual.  He then told Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been reading about also underline the fact that people who drink in an irresponsible and excessive manner and who also experience depression need to get treatment for both medical situations.

Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Makes an Appointment for a Psychological Assessment and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Appraisal

Teresa’s doctor then articulated the following: “I am not trying to make an impulsive judgment, but with your medical circumstances we may be working with two separate issues.  As a consequence, I think we need to make an appointment for you to get an alcoholism and alcohol abuse evaluation from my partner, Dr. Warner, who is an alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse specialist.  Whether your drinking problem is more related to alcohol abuse or alcohol dependency is unknown at this time, but I feel that further assessment is defensible.  Then I think we ought to schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological evaluation from another one of my partners, Dr. Resni
ck, who is a counseling psychologist.  I want to get a better grip on your melancholy and see how much your drinking and depression are associated.”  Teresa showed her satisfaction with her physician’s treatment strategy and thanked him for his help and concern.  Now all she had to do was to try to cut back on her drinking and get ready for her appointments.