Talking to Your Physician About Your Alcohol Problems and Your Depression
Monday, August 17th, 2009Larry decided to go and see his doctor about his problem drinking. At first, Larry thought he would be able to merely go on the Internet, look for some essential alcohol info, and establish whether or not he was dependent on alcohol. Not surprisingly, he discovered several websites that specified some of the commonplace alcoholism symptoms. That’s the positive news. The bad news, sadly, was that Larry manifested numerous of these alcoholism symptoms.
Alcoholism Symptoms: Some Illustrations
For example, Larry was drinking substantially more than customary and he was starting to have more intense arguments with his wife. Moreover, for the first time in his life he was suffering through sleeping issues. Besides this, Larry habitually felt depressed and on an ever increasing basis he had been demonstrating limited attentiveness at his job.
Furthermore, he felt highly stressed and more tense on a day-to-day basis and for the past seven or eight months he displayed foggy thinking at his place of work. In view of the fact that Larry exhibited all of these symptoms, he was excusably worried about his irresponsible drinking.
So Larry finally decided to contact his family healthcare practitioner and schedule an appointment. In fact, this was difficult for Larry because his physician was also his parents’ physician. The springboard for his disquiet was this: at the risk of embarrassing his family, he had to go and announce his irresponsible and abusive drinking behavior to his family healthcare practitioner.
When Larry arrived at the physician’s office, he explicitly notified the family healthcare practitioner about the trepidation he had about his hazardous drinking behavior. When the physician asked what was setting off this anxiety, Larry confirmed that he had gone online and read about dependency on alcohol and especially about alcoholism symptoms. He then stated all of the alcohol addiction symptoms that he clearly thought he possessed.
A Comprehensive Physical Assessment and Outpatient Alcohol Rehab
The family doctor informed Larry that it was smart of him to concentrate on his problem drinking, he gave Larry a comprehensive physical assessment, and recommended that he enroll in an out-patient alcohol rehab facility that was run by one of his doctor partners.
In the same way, when Larry stated that he had been feeling gloom more regularly, the healthcare practitioner notified Larry that alcoholism and depression often happen in the same individual. Thus, the healthcare practitioner also recommended that Larry seek therapy to deal with his despair.
The Merit of Dealing With Your Drinking Issues
The family healthcare practitioner made it a point to tell Larry that he might not necessarily be dependent on alcohol, but that he was plainly drinking in a careless manner. The healthcare practitioner then informed Larry that the reason he recommended alcohol treatment in the first place was because he wanted him to face up to his drinking issues, make sure that he stopped them from going downhill further, and start to live in a more healthy manner, even if it meant that he had to totally abstain from drinking.
To put it briefly, by successfully treating his drinking difficulties, Larry would be able to get his drinking issues under control and refrain from the negative cycle of events that could most likely lead to addiction to alcohol.
Without a doubt, Larry did not want to face the thought of getting admitted into an alcohol treatment facility. Nor was he overjoyed about going to a therapist about his despair. Despite these anxieties, alternatively, Larry in point of fact felt some psychological relief for the first time in numerous months because he finally stopped making excuses for himself and finally determined that he needed to do something affirmative about his drinking behavior.