Wendy was the mother of three children. Wendy had been feeling quite nervous lately and started to “medicate” herself by having a few shots of whisky every night after she tucked her children into bed. After around three months of this drinking routine, she at long last grasped the fact that instead of helping her ”lighten up” and deal with her problems, drinking made her feel less tranquil when she got up in the morning. This, in turn, made her feel even more anxious throughout the day.
After thinking about her “condition” for two or three weeks, Wendy made up her mind to discuss her drinking situation with her best friend. In truth, about twenty minutes into their discussion, Wendy’s friend, Londyn, mentioned that she knew about a very supportive and competent physician at the local alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility. After talking to her friend, Wendy without much ado got motivated to call the treatment center and schedule an appointment.
Five days later she eventually got to meet the doctor her friend had been talking about. After their brief introduction, Wendy explained to the psychiatrist that ever since she and her husband got divorced, she has been having an extremely difficult time emotionally, spiritually, and financially.
At times, she felt that the divorce was behind her. Recently, on the other hand, she has been feeling quite depressed about the fact that she and her former husband couldn’t stay married and “make it”. When asked by the doctor how long her ex-husband and she dated before they got married, Wendy told the psychiatrist that Robert, her former husband, and she went out for four-and-a-half years and then lived together for two-and-a-half years before they got married.
As Wendy was talking to the doctor, she underlined the point that she really thought that she and Robert waited long enough to know each other well enough before they got married. After the kids started to arrive, conversely, their lives seemed to fall apart. To make mattes even worse, both she and Robert began to drink, and their alcohol abuse negatively affected their relationship, their love for one another, and their finances.
When things became less than cordial between them, Robert got a lawyer and filed for a divorce. Even though things were visibly not going well and although she was habitually depressed, Wendy told the psychiatrist that she didn’t want their relationship to come to an end. Once she received the divorce papers, however, she knew that their relationship was over.
The psychiatrist explained to Wendy that the stress, anxiety, and tension that she has been going through concerning her irresponsible and abusive drinking are some of the usual alcohol abuse effects and that the best solution for this state of affairs is rehabilitation for one’s alcohol abuse. In fact, getting alcohol abuse treatment is very important because long-term drinking can get the drinker into even more dangerous alcohol and alcoholism difficulties.
After eleven or twelve therapy sessions with her doctor, Wendy was slowly but surely able to understand that the real source of her anxiety and her depression was that she had not gotten to the bottom of her nasty feelings she has for her former husband who had divorced her two-and-a-half years ago. With these insights and with the meds her psychiatrist prescribed, she eventually abstained from drinking, she started to feel significantly less depressed, and she began making more time for social activities with her friends and family. A few months after getting counseling from her physician, she even began to date once again.
It was clear that Wendy had come a long way. In truth, just about four months after she completed her therapy, Wendy had finally laid the harmful feelings of Robert, her former 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.
