Augie and Merissa have been dating one another for seven years. They met while taking the same photo editing class at a medium size, countryside, Church affiliated liberal arts college located in the Western part of the U.S. While they were for the most part good buddies at first, they eventually started to date when they were in their third year of college.

Because both of them came from very conservative backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the casual drinking stage when they first began dating. As the time progressed, nevertheless, they began to go to more sorority and fraternity parties, happy hours, football bashes, and keg parties. As a result, they little by little began to drink increasingly more the longer they saw one another in a dating capacity.

Their Social Life Typically Consisted of Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Professional Sporting Events, Going to Parties With Their Friends, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Pub on the Weekends

After they graduated, they both landed jobs in a relatively small city located just about fifty-five miles from their undergraduate college. Then they finally made up their mind to move in with one another.

Since they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nevertheless, their social life generally consisted of going to parties with their friends, going to professional sporting events, going to happy hour with their friends, going to restaurants three or four nights per week, and going to the local saloon with their buddies on the weekends. In brief, Augie and Merissa began drinking in an abusive and irresponsible manner.

Now that they were living in the same apartment with one another and beginning to get more earnest about their relationship, however, they began to think about buying a house, getting married, becoming more responsible, and having children.

With any momentous change in an individual’s life there is generally something that causes the particular alteration in question. For Merissa and Augie the idea of buying a new house and having children was this “source of change.” Stated simply, for the first time in their lives, Augie and Merissa started to critically appraise their irresponsible and abusive drinking and the long term alcohol effects on their lives.

How Would Their Hazardous Drinking Affect Their Mental Health, Their Ability to Have Children, Their Relationship With One Another, Their Finances, and Their Relationship With Their Parents?

Would their excessive drinking unfavorably affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending so much money on drinking if they were to begin saving for a new house? How accountable would they be if they had children and continued to drink in an abusive and excessive manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term goals, aspirations, and dreams while they still drank in an irresponsible and abusive manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their heavy and hazardous drinking do to their relationship? How would their hazardous and irresponsible drinking affect their mental health?

From a different perspective, although neither one of them ever suffered from alcohol poisoning, received a DUI, or experienced alcohol withdrawal symptoms, they realized that their irresponsible drinking was becoming an issue that they could not turn their backs on any longer.

After Giving Their State of Affairs Much Deliberation, Merissa and Augie Finally Comprehended That Their Dreams, Aspirations, and Goals Would not be Realized if They Continued Their Hazardous and Abusive Drinking

All of these queries clearly pointed to the same conclusion: Merissa and Augie needed to learn that they couldn’t continue their abusive and hazardous drinking if their dreams, plans, and hopes were to be reached.

Once they arrived at this conclusion, they advised their drinking friends about their plans to start a family, about their goal of buying or building a new house, and about their marital plans. They also told their drinking friends that they still wanted to associate with them but that they would be drinking responsibly from this time forward so that they could begin realizing their future aspirations, dreams, and hopes.

Much to their disbelief, all of their pals expressed relief because they too had been reevaluating their lives and concluded that their life-styles were much too often centered around drinking. They also thought that they would have to change drastically if they were to become more responsible and display more care for their careers, their plans, and for their health in the next twenty or twenty-five years.

After their conversation with their friends about their hopes, dreams, and plans, Merissa and Augie in reality started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their pals. The main reason for this was the fact that all of them had a similar perspective regarding their irresponsible and heavy drinking and their relatively short and long-term plans, aspirations, and goals.

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