A Woman Displays Symptoms of Alcohol Dependency and Depression and Schedules an Appointment to See Her Healthcare Practitioner About Her Drinking Issues

Teresa was a thirty-two-year-old travel agent who knew that she had some problems with her drinking. For example, within the past six months she has felt the need to have a drink or two before going to work, two months ago she failed a random blood alcohol test at work, two weeks ago she got arrested for a DUI, and finally, for about two months she has started to forget what she says and does when she drinks with her friends.

Similar to other individuals, Teresa’s alcohol involvement began slowly and stayed at this tempo for quite a long period of time because every now and then she engaged in intermittent social drinking. In fact, for roughly six months, every time she went out with her coworkers to drink, she made sure to drink moderately. Something about her pattern of drinking, however, seemed to drastically change when she got divorced from her husband.

In Order To Come to Terms With the Loss of Her Husband More Rapidly, Teresa Came to a Decision That She Will Start Hanging Around More Repeatedly With Some of Her Friends Who Love to Drink and Have Fun

Teresa got exceedingly disheartened about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to abstain from dwelling on her discouraging emotions she made up her mind to begin associating more often with some of her buddies who love to drink.

Quite candidly, Teresa believed that having fun nearly every day by getting “mellow” and drinking with her buddies would help her recover from the loss of her husband more quickly.

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

It didn’t take very long, nonetheless, before her drinking increased considerably the more often she went to and drank at family get-togethers, sporting events, happy hours, dinner dates, and private parties with her pals. What is more, the fact that her drinking buddies were all younger than she was and therefore able to party more recklessly was one of the reasons why she didn’t direct more of her attention to her increased drinking. Simply put, she was drinking and having a ton of fun just like everybody else in her group of buddies without much reflection about the negative effects of her irresponsible and hazardous drinking.

Yet someplace in her mind she knew that she more likely than not required alcohol rehabilitation but steered clear of the thought as much as humanly possible.

Teresa Gets a Physical, Owns up to the Truth About Her Excessive and Abusive Drinking to Her Physician, and Discloses the Truth About Her General State of Gloom

One morning during her twelve month physical exam, her physician asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her healthcare practitioner, Teresa admitted that she commonly drinks more than she should. As a matter of fact, she stated that she regularly drinks in an abusive and excessive manner. Then Teresa informed her physician about her depression. More precisely, she articulated that ruined relationships more often than not elicited a discouraging sequence of events characterized by increased drinking which further resulted in more negative feelings that, in turn, resulted in more drinking. And this is explicitly what happened when she and her husband got divorced eight months 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 often happen in the same individual. He then informed Teresa that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been reading about also stress the fact that people who drink in an irresponsible and excessive manner and who also experience depression need to obtain treatment for both medical conditions.

Teresa’s Healthcare Practitioner Makes 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 a snap diagnosis, but with your medical situation we may be facing two separate matters. As a result, I think we probably should make an appointment for you to get an alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse assessment from my partner, Dr.
Glosik, who is an alcohol and drug addiction specialist. Whether your drinking problem is more related to alcoholism or alcohol abuse is unclear, but I think that further evaluation is required. Then I feel we need to make an appointment for you to get a psychological evaluation from another one of my partners, Dr. Myers, who is a counseling psychologist. I want to get a better understanding about your pessimism and see how much your depression and drinking are associated.” Teresa displayed her agreement with her healthcare practitioner’s treatment approach 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.

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