A Woman Exhibits Signs of Depression and Alcohol Addiction and Schedules an Appointment to See Her Physician About Her Irresponsible and Abusive Drinking

Teresa was a forty-four-year-old marketing manager who realized that she had some problems with her drinking. For example, within the past three months she has experienced the need to have two or three drinks before going to work, four months ago she failed to pass a random urine alcohol test where she works, two weeks ago she got arrested by the state highway patrol for “driving under the influence”, and lastly, for almost six months she has begun to forget what she says and does when she goes out drinking with her buddies.

Not unlike other people, Teresa’s alcohol involvement started out at a "snail's pace" and stayed at this pace for quite a long time because from time to time she engaged in occasional social drinking. In point of fact, for about nine months, every time she went out with her coworkers to drink, she made sure to drink in a responsible manner. Something about her drinking situation, however, seemed to fundamentally change when she got divorced.

So She Can Get Over the Divorce of Her Husband With Less Sorrow, Teresa Determined That She Will Begin Associating More Regularly With Some of Her Pals Who Love to Drink and Have Fun

Teresa got especially depressed about the divorce from her husband, and as a way to stop her preoccupation with her depressing emotions she determined that she would begin associating more often with some of her friends who love to whoop it up and drink.

Quite candidly, Teresa reasoned that having fun just about every day by getting an alcohol “buzz” with her friends would help her come to terms with the divorce of her husband with less grief.

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

It didn’t take long, nevertheless, before her drinking increased significantly the more frequently she went to and drank at private parties, happy hours, family get-togethers, dinner dates, and sporting events with her friends. Not only this, but the fact that her drinking friends were all much younger than she was and therefore able to party more irresponsibly was one of the reasons that she didn’t allocate more of her attention to her increased drinking. In short, she was drinking and having a great time just like everybody else in her group of pals without paying much attention to the outcome of her excessive and hazardous drinking.

Yet someplace in her awareness she knew that she probably needed alcohol treatment but avoided the thought as much as she could.

Teresa Gets a Physical, Discloses the Facts About Her Hazardous Drinking to Her Doctor, and Admits Her Depression

One afternoon during her yearly physical examination, her doctor asked her if she drank alcohol. Not wanting to tell “stories” to her healthcare practitioner, Teresa admitted that she regularly drinks more than she should. In fact, she stated that she regularly drinks in an irresponsible and excessive manner. Then Teresa informed her healthcare professional about her general state of despair. More to the point, she stated that wrecked relationships many times generated a disheartening chain of events characterized by increased drinking which further resulted in more depressing feelings that, in turn, resulted in even more drinking. And this is precisely what happened when her husband and she got divorced two years ago.

When her doctor heard this, he informed Teresa that according to various alcoholism facts and statistics on alcoholism he was examining, alcoholism and depression routinely arise in the same person. He then told her that some of the alcohol statistics, research investigations, and facts he has been looking into also underline the fact that individuals who drink in an irresponsible manner and who also go through depression need to obtain treatment for both medical situations.

Teresa’s Physician Schedules an Appointment for a Psychological Appraisal and For an Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse Assessment

Teresa’s healthcare practitioner then articulated the following: “I am not trying to make a snap diagnosis, but with your medical circumstances we may be working with two separate problems. As a consequence, I think we probably should schedule an appointment for you to get an alcoholism and alcohol abuse evaluation from my partner, Dr. Novak, who is an alcohol dependency specialist. Whether your drinking situation is more associated with alcohol dependency or alcohol abuse is not clear at this time, but I believe that further assessment is defensible. Then I think we need to schedule an appointment for you to get a psychological exam from another one of my partners, Dr. Robbins, who is a clinical psychologist. I want to get a deeper understanding about your dejection and see how much your drinking and depression are interlinked.” Teresa expressed her agreement with her healthcare practitioner’s strategy and thanked him for his time and concern. Now all she had to do was to try to decrease her drinking and wait for her appointments.