Wendy was the mother of four children. Wendy had been feeling quite stressed out lately and started to “medicate” herself by having three or four shots of burbon each night after she put her children to bed. After about six weeks of this drinking routine, she at last grasped the fact that instead of helping her ”loosen up” and ”handle” her issues, drinking made her feel less rested when she awakened. This, in turn, made her feel increasingly more tense all through the day.

After thinking about her situation for several weeks, Wendy made up her mind to talk about her drinking situation with her best friend. In truth, approximately ten minutes into their conversation, Wendy’s friend, Zaria, mentioned that she knew about a very highly qualified and professional physician at the local alcohol and drug treatment center. After talking to her friend, Wendy immediately got encouraged to call the treatment center and schedule an appointment.

Eleven days later she eventually got to meet the physician her friend had talked about. After their brief introduction, Wendy told the psychiatrist that ever since her former husband and she got divorced, she has been having a very hard time financially, spiritually, and emotionally.

At times, she felt that she was 100% over the divorce. Recently, however, she has been feeling extremely depressed about the fact that her former husband and she couldn’t “make it”. When asked by the doctor how long her ex-husband and she dated before they got married, Wendy told the physician that Robert, her former husband, and she dated for five-and-a-half years and then lived together for two-and-a-half years before they got married.

As Wendy was talking to the physician, she underlined the point that she honestly thought that her former husband and she waited long enough to know one another well enough before they got married. After the kids started to arrive, conversely, just about everything seemed to go downhill. To make mattes even worse, both she and Robert began to drink, and their abusive and excessive drinking adversely affected their finances, their relationship, and their love for one another.

When things became dysfunctional between them, Robert hired a divorce attorney and filed for a divorce. Although things were plainly not going well and even though she was often depressed, Wendy told the psychiatrist that she did not want to end their relationship. Once she was served her divorce papers, however, she knew that their relationship was over.

The physician explained to Wendy that the anxiety, tension, and stress that she has been suffering from regarding her hazardous and careless drinking are some of the better known alcohol abuse effects and that the best solution for this situation is rehabilitation for one’s alcohol abuse. In fact, getting alcohol abuse treatment is essential because long-term drinking can get the drinker into even more serious alcohol and alcoholism difficulties.

After five or six therapy sessions with her doctor, Wendy was gradually able to comprehend the fact that the real origin of her stress and her depression was that she had not laid to rest her acrimonious feelings she has for her ex-husband who had divorced her four years ago. With these insights and with the drugs her physician prescribed, she eventually stopped drinking, she started to feel significantly less depressed, and she began making more time for social activities with her family and friends. A few months after receiving counseling from her doctor, she even started to date once again.

It was clear that Wendy had come a long way. In truth, just about seven months after she stopped her counseling, Wendy had finally laid the depressing thoughts of Robert, her ex-husband, to rest and was beginning to feel more self esteem and more spiritually “sound” and emotionally “together” than she had ever felt in her life.

Russ dropped out of high school when he was sixteen years old and eventually got a job at a local chemical plant. For the last seven years he has gained a reputation as a hard-working person who hardly ever calls off work because of illness.

Around six months ago he started going out with a woman named Emma. They appeared to get along real well immediately and gave people the impression that they had a lot of fun together.

The Abusive Drinking Begins

When Russ met Emma, he hardly ever drank. This situation changed when Russ and Emma started dating on a fairly constant basis. In actual fact, everything was going fine until Emma called Russ one night roughly 4:30 AM and said that she had to call off their relationship and that she couldn’t explain the reason at that moment.

The next morning before he went to work, Russ drove to Emma’s apartment and found out almost immediately that Emma had already moved out. Russ took this awfully hard. As a matter of fact, he was bewildered because they seemed to be getting along so well.

When Excessive and Abusive Drinking Leads to Problems at Work

So what did Russ do about Emma’s departure? Rather than working through his pain and misery, he began getting drunk almost every night. It didn’t take long for his buddies at work or for his manager to notice that Russ was coming to work late at least three times per week and that he continually called off sick. Furthermore, some of his fellow employees made an appointment with staff in the HR Department and mentioned that Russ time after time came to work with a noticeable smell of alcohol on his breath or on his clothes.

Russ’s boss heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Russ’s co-workers. So one Friday afternoon he called Russ into his office. He told Russ that he had recently noticed a profound change in his sick time, attendance, behavior, and in his work performance.

When a Supervison Can Motivate a Worker to Get Help For His or Her Heavy Drinking

Russ’s supervisor also stated that a number of his fellow employees reported him to Human Resources because he had been coming to work with a noticeable smell of alcohol. His manager then stated the following: “Russ, your co-workers are not reporting you to the HR Department to get you into any trouble or because they dislike you but rather because they are concerned about you. And I care too. I don’t want to poke my nose into your business, but it is apparent that you are exhibiting some of the common signs and symptoms of problem drinking. Consequently, I want you to go and see a counselor in the employee’s assistance program to discuss your drinking.”

“Russ, I’m no medical doctor or a counselor, but I have seen quite a few of my relatives and friends suffer through some really negative alcohol side effects. Not only this but I have also experienced the signs of alcoholism first-hand in my own family. When individuals suffer from problems with drinking, these issues not only affect the drinker, but they also make an impact on his or her co-workers, friends, neighbors, relatives, and family.”

Russ respected his supervisor very much and as a consequence followed through with his suggestion the next morning when he called and scheduled an appointment with a therapist in the employee’s assistance program.

Russ is Still Depressed But Experiences Some Hope That He Will Get His Life Back on Track

Although Russ didn’t necessarily feel any better or less depressed about the sadness he still feels for Emma, he felt some comfort knowing that his manager and his fellow employees wanted what’s best for him and cared about him. This gave Russ some emotional relief for the first time in more than a few weeks and he actually felt some hope that he would get back on track with his life.