Larry is a eighteen-year-old adolescent who has eventually decided that he needs to go and see his family physician about his abusive drinking. At first, Larry thought he would be able to merely go on the Internet, look for some basic alcohol info, and come to a decision whether or not he was addicted to alcohol.
Not surprisingly, he found several websites that listed some of the well-known alcoholism symptoms. That’s the positive news. The bad news, unfortunately, was that Larry manifested numerous of these alcoholism symptoms.
Symptoms of Alcohol Addiction: Some Examples
As a case in point, Larry has been drinking quite a bit more than normal and he has begun to have more intense disagreements with his girlfriend. In the same way, for the first time in his life he has been going through sleeping issues. Likewise, Larry habitually has felt depressed and on an escalating basis he has been exhibiting less than usual concentration in the classroom. In addition, he has felt stressed out and more on edge on a regular basis and for the past four or five months he has manifested foggy thinking while at school. In view of the fact that Larry has been demonstrating all of these symptoms, he was justifiably uneasy about his hazardous and abusive drinking.
So Larry eventually determined that he needed to call his physician and ask for an appointment. In reality, this was difficult for Larry because his healthcare professional was also his parents’ family doctor. The origin of his distress was this: at the risk of embarrassing his family, he had to go and disclose his unhealthy and excessive drinking behavior to his physician.
When Larry arrived at the family doctor’s office, he truthfully told the doctor about the concern he has about his abusive drinking behavior. When the family physician asked what was prompting this apprehension, Larry acknowledged that he had gone on the world wide web and read about alcoholism and especially about alcohol addiction symptoms. He then listed all of the alcohol addiction symptoms that he unmistakably thought he possesses.
A Thorough Physical Exam and Outpatient Alcohol Rehab
The healthcare practitioner informed Larry that it was prudent of him to address his drinking difficulties, he gave Larry a thorough physical examination, and suggested that he talk to his Mom and Dad about enrolling in an out-patient alcohol treatment program that was run by Doctor Cohen, one of his doctor associates who is an alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction specialist.
What is more, when Larry expressed the fact that he has been feeling depressed to a greater degree, the doctor told Larry that alcoholism and depression frequently arise in the same individual. For that reason, the physician also suggested that Larry talk to his Mom and Dad about obtaining therapy in order to tackle his sense of gloom. In fact, Larry can go to the local counseling center and make an appointment with Doctor Fox, an eminent counseling psychologist who specializes in treating adolescents.
The Advantage of Facing Your Drinking Issues
The healthcare professional made it a point to inform Larry that he might not inevitably be addicted to alcohol, but that he was certainly drinking in a careless manner. The physician then notified Larry that the reason he suggested alcohol treatment in the first place was because he wanted him to confront 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 completely quit drinking.
Everything considered, by successfully treating his problem drinking, Larry would be able to get his drinking problems under control and stop the negative series of events that could potentially result in alcoholism.
Larry undoubtedly did not look forward to facing his parents about his depression and his drinking issues. And he certainly did not want to face the thought of enrolling in an alcohol rehab program. And last but not least, he was not overjoyed about going to a counselor about his excessive sadness. In the face of these anxieties, however, Larry in reality experienced some emotional relief for the first time in many months because he finally quit making excuses for himself and at long last determined that he needed to do something constructive about his hazardous drinking.