Teresa was a thirty-three-year-old financial analyst who knew that she had a drinking problem. For example, within the past six months she has experienced the need to have quite a few drinks before going to work, two months ago she failed a random breathalyzer test at her place of employment, four months ago she got stopped by the police for “driving under the influence,” and lastly, for the last seven months she has started to fail to remember what she says and does when she goes out drinking.

Like many other drinkers, Teresa’s involvement with alcohol started out at a “snail’s pace” and continued at this speed for quite some time because every so often she engaged in occasional social drinking. As a matter of fact, for about a year, every time she went out to drink, she made sure to drink moderately. Something about her drinking activities, nonetheless, seemed to fundamentally change when she divorced her husband.

In Order To Get Beyond the Loss of Her Husband With Less Distress, Teresa Decided to Begin Hanging Around More Routinely With Some of Her Buddies Who Love to Drink

Teresa got very disheartened about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to refrain from her preoccupation with her dismal emotions she came to a decision that she would begin associating more repeatedly with some of her pals who love to have fun and drink.

Quite frankly, Teresa figured that having fun just about every day by getting an alcohol “buzz” with her buddies would help her recover from the breakup of her husband in a more trouble-free manner.

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

It didn’t take very long, however, before her drinking escalated considerably the more often she went to and drank at dinner dates, happy hours, private parties, sporting events, and family get-togethers with her buddies. Moreover, the fact that her drinking friends were all considerably younger than she was and therefore able to party more recklessly was one of the reasons that she didn’t direct more of her attention to her increased drinking. To put it briefly, she was having fun drinking just like everybody else in her group of friends without spending a lot of time thinking about the unhealthy results of her excessive drinking.

Yet someplace in her awareness she knew that she probably needed alcohol treatment but stayed away from the thought as much as humanly possible.

Teresa Gets a Physical Examination, Discloses the Truth About Her Hazardous and Excessive Drinking to Her Healthcare Practitioner, and Owns up to the Facts About Her General State of Despair

One day during her twelve month physical examination, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her physician, Teresa ”came clean” and said that she frequently drinks more than she should. In fact, she said that she commonly drinks in an excessive and hazardous manner. Then Teresa told her healthcare professional about her depression. More precisely, she articulated that broken relationships often started a negative sequence of events typified by increased drinking which further resulted in more discouraging feelings that, in turn, led to even more drinking. And this is precisely what took place when her husband and she got divorced five years ago.

When her physician heard this, he told Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was investigating, alcoholism and depression commonly take place in the same individual. He then told her that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been studying also highlight the fact that people who drink in a hazardous and irresponsible manner and who also suffer from depression need to obtain treatment for both medical circumstances.

Teresa’s Physician Makes an Appointment for a Psychological Evaluation and For an Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Evaluation

Teresa’s physician then said the following: “I am not trying to make an overly quick analysis, but with your medical circumstances we may be confronting two separate matters. As a consequence, I think we should schedule an appointment for you to get an alcoholism and alcohol abuse appraisal from my partner, Dr. Novak, who is an alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction specialist. Whether your drinking circumstance is more associated with alcohol abuse or alcoholism is unknown at this time, but I feel that further exploration is needed. Then I believe we need to make an appointment for you to get a psychological assessment from another one of my partners, Dr. Barney, who is a psychologist. I want to get some additional information about your pessimism and see how much your drinking and depression are interlinked.” Teresa expressed her satisfaction with her healthcare professional’s “game plan” and thanked him for his assistance.

In all honesty, Teresa now felt a sense of personal fulfillment because she finally became inspired to do something positive about her abusive drinking and her depression. Now all she had to do was to try to lessen her drinking and get ready for her appointments.

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