Talking to Your Physician About Your Depression and Your Problem Drinking

by Thomas Soaringbird on October 18, 2009

Denny is a sixteen-year-old teenager who has eventually decided to go and see his physician about his abusive and excessive drinking. At first, Denny thought he would be able to simply go on the Internet, look for some fundamental alcohol info and establish whether or not he was addicted to alcohol.

Not surprisingly, he found many websites that itemized some of the general alcoholism symptoms. That’s the encouraging news. The less than encouraging news, regrettably, was that Denny manifested quite a few of these alcoholism symptoms.

Alcohol Dependency Symptoms Revisited

For instance, Denny has been drinking much more than customary and he has begun to have more fiery spats with the young lady he is dating. In the same way, for the first time in his life he has been encountering sleeping difficulties. In a similar manner, Denny habitually has felt depressed and on an increasing basis he has been exhibiting limited concentration while at school. Moreover, he has felt stressed out and more edgy on a regular basis and for the past three or four months he has displayed murky thinking in class. Given that Denny has been demonstrating all of these symptoms, he was understandably uneasy about his abusive and careless drinking.

So Denny decided to place a phone call to his healthcare professional and make an appointment. In reality, this was challenging for Denny because his family healthcare practitioner was also his parents’ doctor. The springboard for his anxiety was this: at the risk of embarrassing his family, he had to go and disclose his hazardous and abusive drinking behavior to his doctor.

When Denny arrived at the family physician’s office, he explicitly told the family physician about the apprehension he feels about his excessive drinking behavior. When the healthcare professional asked what was inducing this consternation, Denny articulated that he had gone on the world wide web and read about alcoholism and especially about alcoholism symptoms. He then outlined all of the alcohol addiction symptoms that he unmistakably thought he has.

A Thoroughgoing Physical Exam and Outpatient Alcohol Rehab

The family doctor told Denny that it was wise of him to attend to his problem drinking, he gave Denny a comprehensive physical appraisal, and recommended that he talk to his parents about signing into an out-patient alcohol treatment program that was managed by Doctor Cooke, one of his doctor accomplices who is an alcohol dependency specialist.

Additionally, when Denny said that he has been feeling a sense of despair to an increasing extent, the family physician informed Denny that depression and alcoholism routinely crop up in the same person. Therefore, the family doctor also suggested that Denny talk to his parents about obtaining therapy to focus on his sense of gloom. In fact, Denny can go to the local counseling center and make an appointment with Doctor Johnson, a celebrated clinical psychologist who specializes in treating adolescents.

The Significance of Coping With Your Drinking Difficulties and Getting Enthused About Making Healthy and Positive Changes in Your Life

The physician made it a point to inform Denny that he might not necessarily be alcohol dependent, but that he was unmistakably drinking in an excessive manner. Stated more precisely, Denny was engaging in teen alcohol abuse. The physician then notified Denny that the reason he recommended alcohol treatment in the first place was because he wanted him to confront his drinking issues, make sure that he prevented them from worsening, and start to live in a more healthy manner, even if it meant that he had to totally quit drinking.

In a word, by successfully treating his drinking difficulties, Denny would be able to get his drinking issues under control and refrain from the negative cycle that could most likely result in alcoholism.

Denny clearly did not look forward to facing his parents about his depression and his drinking issues. And he definitely did not want to face the thought of enrolling in an alcohol rehab program. And lastly, he was not elated about going to a counseling psychologist about his depression. Irrespective of these fears, then again, Denny actually experienced some emotional relief for the first time in quite a few months because he ultimately quit making excuses for himself and finally determined that he needed to do something positive about his excessive and careless drinking.

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