A Woman Displays Signs of Depression and Alcohol Abuse and Schedules an Appointment to See Her Physician About Her Hazardous and Excessive Drinking
Teresa was a forty-nine-year-old administrative assistant who knew that she had some drinking issues. For example, within the past two months she has experienced the need to have two or three drinks before going to work, two months ago she failed to pass a random saliva alcohol test at work, six weeks ago she got stopped by the police for “driving under the influence”, and finally, for nearly seven months she has started to forget what she says and does when she goes out drinking with her buddies.
Similar to hosts of other drinkers, Teresa’s alcohol involvement started out little by little and remained at this level for quite some time due to the fact every now and then she engaged in sporadic social drinking. In point of fact, for about three years, every time she went out to drink, she made sure to drink responsibly. Something about her drinking, nevertheless, seemed to radically change when she got divorced.
So She Can Rise Above the Breakup of Her Husband More Rapidly, Teresa Made Up Her Mind To Start Associating More Regularly With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Have Fun Drinking
Teresa got very disheartened about the loss of her husband, and as a way to abstain from dwelling on her discouraging feelings she made up her mind to begin going out more frequently with some of her friends who love to drink.
Quite honestly, Teresa believed that having fun nearly every day by getting an alcohol “buzz” with her friends would help her get over the loss of her husband with less distress.
Teresa’s Drinking Increases Greatly the More Habitually She Goes to Family Get-Togethers, Happy Hours, Sporting Events, Dinner Dates, and Private Parties With Her Friends
It didn’t take long, nonetheless, before her drinking increased to a significant extent the more frequently she went to and drank at dinner dates, sporting events, happy hours, private parties, and family get-togethers with her buddies. What is more, the fact that her drinking pals were all younger than she was and therefore able to party and drink harder and longer was one of the reasons why she didn’t focus more on her increased drinking. Simply put, she was drinking and having a great time just like everybody else in her group of buddies without giving much thought to the results of her excessive and abusive drinking.
Yet in the back of her mind she realized that she more likely than not needed alcohol rehab but kept away from the thought as much as humanly possible.
Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Admits Her Abusive and Irresponsible Drinking to Her Healthcare Professional, and Owns Up to the Truth About Her Sadness
One late afternoon during her annual physical examination, her healthcare professional asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her healthcare practitioner, Teresa ”came clean” and stated that she often drinks more than she should. In actual fact, she articulated that she routinely drinks in an abusive and irresponsible manner. Then Teresa told her healthcare professional about her depression. More to the point, she stated that ruined relationships usually triggered a depressing cycle of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more disheartening feelings that, in turn, led to more drinking. And this is precisely what took place when she and her husband got divorced three years ago.
When her healthcare professional heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was examining, alcoholism and depression frequently happen in the same individual. He then told Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been studying also underscore the fact that people who drink in an abusive and irresponsible manner and who also experience depression need to obtain treatment for both medical situations.
Teresa’s Physician Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Dependency Evaluation
Teresa’s healthcare professional then told her the following: “I am not trying to make a spur-of-the-moment judgment, but with your medical situation we may be confronting two separate issues. Consequently, I think we probably should schedule an appointment for you to get an alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction evaluation from my partner, Dr. Jefferson, who is an alcohol abuse and alcoholism specialist. Whether your drinking problem is more associated with alcoholism or alcohol abuse is unknown at this time, but I feel that further exploration is reasonable. Then I believe we should make an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Nardi, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get some more insights about your pessimism and see how much your drinking and depression are related.” Teresa displayed her agreement with her healthcare professional’s plan of attack and thanked him for his assistance and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to decrease her drinking and wait for her appointments.