Barry used to boast to his drinking pals how he could maintain a demanding and fulltime job and get smashed almost every night. Regrettably, after engaging in this unhealthy lifestyle for just about three-and-a-half years, he began to observe various alcohol related difficulties.
Barry Begins to Manifest a Variety of Alcohol Related Issues
As an illustration, he had a real difficult time getting up for work because he felt so tired when he got up. Not only this, but virtually every morning Barry suffered from a dreadful hangover. Without a doubt, the combination of his hangovers and his lack of energy did not make it easy for him to get up and feel inspired to go to work. To add fuel to the fire, he just received his third driving under the influence citation in the past four months.
To complicate things further, at his place of employment his last two work evaluations were not up to his usual high standards. And lastly, his four-and-a-half-year relationship with his girlfriend had worsened due to his depression, angry outbursts, financial difficulties, and his lack of patience.
Though Barry was only twenty-eight years old, he simply began looking like he was in his mid thirties. Sadly, this is what abusive and irresponsible drinking can do to a person. And in all candor he grasped the fact that he was going through the negative effects of alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction and that he was too young to fritter away his life to unhealthy and irresponsible drinking. So initially he tried to drink responsibly and in moderation. Sadly, he soon grasped the fact that he lost his self control after consuming his first drink. Stated another way, after his first drink he invariably proceeded to get smashed. Due to the fact that this was an event that was repeated every time he went out to drink, this obviously concerned him a great deal. In truth, he started to wonder if he was manifesting some of the signs of alcoholism and alcohol abuse.
Barry Makes up His Mind To Schedule an Appointment to See His Family Doctor
After going over his excessive alcohol ingestion and his excessive and irresponsible drinking with his girlfriend, he finally made up his mind to schedule an appointment to see his doctor. When Barry saw his family doctor, he frankly declared that he has been abusing alcohol, that he may be manifesting alcoholic signs, and that he wants to stop drinking. He then mentioned that drinking responsibly and in moderation doesn’t work well for him and, as a consequence, he wants to learn how he can live without drinking alcohol.
Barry also told his healthcare professional about his depression and how this mental health issue was adversely affecting his relationship with his lady friend. His healthcare professional referred Barry to Doctor Gordon, a drug and alcohol addiction psychiatrist, who motivated Barry to enroll in a drug and alcohol treatment facility as an in-patient for alcohol detox and alcohol rehab. Fortunately, Barry would also be able to get medical attention for his depression at this treatment center.
Abstaining From Drinking Was the Best Decision Barry Had Ever Made
After five months of rigorous rehab, Barry left the in-patient rehab center and continued his recovery via going to local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and via outpatient therapy. Encouraged to change his life in a more productive manner, Barry bought some vitamins at a health store and a cookbook. He then joined a fitness center and began working out three or four times per week. Within four months Barry was a new individual. He was eating nutritious meals, he wasn’t depressed anymore, he now looked younger than he was, he was in shape, and most significant of all, he remained sober for several months. He also became more patient, he didn’t resort to angry outbursts, and he became a more caring individual in his relationship with his girlfriend. In short, quitting drinking was the best decision Barry had ever made.
Mail this postWendy was the mother of three children. Wendy had been feeling quite stressed out lately and started to “medicate” herself by having two or three bottles of beer each night after she tucked her children into bed. After about six months of this drinking routine, she at long last understood the fact that rather than helping her ”chill out” and ”handle” her difficulties, drinking made her feel less tranquil when she awakened in the morning. This, in turn, made her feel increasingly more tense all through the day.
After thinking about her predicament for three or four days, Wendy decided to “open up” about her problem drinking with her best friend. In truth, approximately five minutes into their discussion, Wendy’s friend, Katelyn, mentioned that she knew about an extremely helpful and highly qualified psychiatrist at the local drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. After talking to her friend, Wendy immediately got motivated to call the treatment clinic and schedule an appointment.
Twelve days later she eventually got to meet the physician her best friend had talked about. After their brief introduction, Wendy explained to the physician that ever since she and her husband got divorced, she has been having a difficult time spiritually, emotionally, and financially.
At times, she felt that she was one hundred percent over the divorce. Recently, however, she has been feeling very depressed about the fact that she and her former husband couldn’t “make it”. When asked by the physician how long she and her former husband went together before they got married, Wendy told the doctor that Robert, her former husband, and she went out for four-and-a-half years and then lived together for three years before they got married.
As Wendy was talking to the physician, she underlined the point that she truthfully thought that her former husband and she waited long enough to know each other well enough before they got married. After the kids started to arrive, to the contrary, their lives appeared to fall apart. Furthermore, both she and Robert began to drink, and their irresponsible and careless drinking adversely affected their love for one another, their relationship, and their finances.
When things became less than pleasant between them, Robert got a divorce lawyer and filed for a divorce. Even though things were plainly not going well and although she was often depressed, Wendy told the physician that she didn’t want to put an end to their relationship. Once she received her divorce papers, however, she knew that their relationship was over.
The psychiatrist told Wendy that the anxiety, stress, and tension that she has been going through regarding her excessive and hazardous drinking are some of the normal alcohol abuse effects and that the best solution for this circumstance is rehab for one’s alcohol abuse. In fact, getting alcohol abuse treatment is very important because long-term drinking can get the individual into even more dangerous alcohol and alcoholism problems.
After eleven or twelve therapy sessions with her physician, Wendy was little by little able to understand that the real root of her tension and her depression was that she had not gotten to the bottom of her nasty feelings she has for her former husband who had divorced her two years ago. With these insights and with the medications her doctor prescribed, she eventually quit drinking, she started to feel much less depressed, and she began making more time for social events with her family and friends. A few months after receiving therapy from her doctor, she even started to date once again.
It was evident that Wendy had come a long way. Indeed, just about nine months after she stopped her therapy, Wendy had finally laid the depressing thoughts of Robert, her former husband, to rest and was starting to feel more complete and more spiritually “sound” and emotionally “together” than she had ever felt in her life.
Mail this postAugie 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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