A Young Man’s Excessive and Hazardous Drinking Results In a DUI, Time Behind Bars, and Then Inspiration to Change His devastating and Destructive Lifestyle
Jesse had a particularly difficult time keeping a job. Indeed, because of his sluggishness and lack of incentive, he was unemployed far more often than he was in a state of employment. And when he did secure a job, he had a hard time getting to work when his shift began, he usually received less than optimal performance assessments, and he called off sick so regularly that he typically got fired two or three weeks after he began working. To no one’s amazement, one of the consequences of Jesse’s appalling employment track record was the fact that he was virtually without a dime almost on an everyday basis.
Regardless of Jesse’s irresponsible work record and financial lack of attention, then again, one way or another he managed to drink abusively most of the time.
So it came as no big shock when Jesse got arrested for a fourth DWI. When he went to court, the magistrate clearly stated to Jesse that his alcohol-related behavior was deplorable and, as a consequence, he was going to sentence Jesse to serve five months in the city jail.
Time In Jail To Reflect On The Unhealthy Results of Hazardous and Excessive Drinking
During his time in the county jail, Jesse was expected to learn more about alcohol facts, about the hurtful effects of careless drinking, and he was required to get alcohol counseling. The judge highlighted the fact that unless Jesse gets professional alcohol counseling and learns how to live a life of abstinence, he will quite possibly be spending a lot more time placed behind bars.
Jesse stated that he comprehended what the judge was declaring but he still proclaimed that placement in the county jail was not the best verdict. The magistrate saw things from an entirely different orientation and claimed that it was his obligation to keep alcohol addicted individuals off the streets who drive under the influence and who get arrested for one or more DUIs. To support this statement, the judge listed some long-standing, comprehensively researched alcohol statistics that emphasized some of the injurious results that are correlated with irresponsible and abusive drinking.
Although Jesse realized that he drank abusively, he never thought that he was an alcoholic. So it was a real shocker when Jesse began having alcohol withdrawals just about three hours after getting incarcerated.
To deal with his alcohol withdrawals in a safe manner, Jesse was life flighted to a drug and alcohol treatment hospital for alcohol detox and then brought back to the municipal jail. While locked up in the city jail Jesse got alcohol treatment but due to the fact that he got this counseling as something that was imposed upon him, he did not take ownership of his excessive and irresponsible drinking.
When his time in the local jail was over, the magistrate without reservation told Jesse that he would be under careful scrutiny and would be mandated to take periodic random breath alcohol tests.
Jessie’s Hazardous and Excessive Drinking Prevents Him From Living in a Productive and Responsible Manner
After hearing how Jesse failed to take ownership of his drinking situation and how he grudgingly followed the treatment protocol while in the city jail, the judge knew that it was just a matter of time before he would be seeing Jesse once again in court about his irresponsible drinking behavior. As the judge reflected on Jesse’s situation, he couldn’t help but think about how some people never use their intellect and discover how to live in a responsible and mature manner.
An Old Relationship Motivates and Inspires Jesse to Completely Change His Life
But something happened in Jesse’s life that significantly changed his lifestyle. One day when he was at the store buying chewing tobacco, he met Alice, a girl he hadn’t seen since the ninth grade. After exchanging pleasantries, Alice openly told Jesse that due to her alcohol and drug abuse she was fortunate to be alive.
When Jesse asked her what happened that changed her life in such a positive way, she explained to Jesse that when her cousin Jenny passed away from drug poisoning, this made her see the destructive and detrimental life she had been living.
She emphasized the point that the first thing she did after her cousin’s funeral service was to start going back to church. That was five years ago and with the help, support, and guidance of her minister and other people who went to her parish, she started going to Alcoholics Anonymous and she also got drug and alcohol rehab at the local drug and alcohol treatment facility. Alice told Jesse that despite a few rough moments, she is at last on the path to long term recovery and feeling a sense of happiness and bliss for the first time in her adult life. When Jesse accepted Alice’s invitation to attend her church she was pleasantly surprised. After going to roughly four or five church services, for the first time since he was twenty-one years old, Jesse began thinking that maybe there was hope for him and that he could finally confront his alcohol and drug issues and start living a more productive and rewarding life.
Is Your Drinking Starting to Become a Problem? and When You Need to Get Inspired and Motivated to Receive Alcohol Counseling
How do you identify the fact that you have a drinking problem? When is it obvious that you are involving yourself in alcohol abuse?
If you have ineffectively tried to quit drinking or if you sworn to yourself that your drinking days are behind you and then you were made aware that you were drinking in an abusive manner just a few days later, the odds are especially good that you have drinking problems. The point of emphasis is that if you have tried to stop drinking and cannot accomplish this, then your drinking is controlling you, instead of the other way around.
In a similar manner, if it takes larger amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” more likely than not you need to become aware that you have a drinking problem.
You may be telling yourself that the rationale for your drinking is so that you can reduce your nervous tension or get rid of the sorrow or depression that you feel. Likewise, you may be trying to steer clear of a negative situation and may be looking for something more useful, more favorable, or less regretful.
As you continue to drink, conversely, you will realize that drinking does not result in the same high and you will also become aware that drinking doesn’t help do away with whatever was causing your distress in the first place. You may also notice that the more often you drink, the more depressed you feel.
As you continue to drink, unfortunately, you may become addicted to alcohol and, as a consequence, you may add another key problem to manage rather than becoming aware of more successful and beneficial ways of managing your alcohol produced predicament.
An Alcohol Assessment is Probably Required
If you have determined that you have a problem with your drinking, possibly the most beneficial thing you can do for yourself is to call your medical doctor or healthcare professional and arrange for an appointment for a complete physical and for an appraisal of your drinking activities.
If you honestly feel that you have a critical problem with your drinking, it might be a good idea to get prepared to hear that you need to get alcohol therapy.
At this point in time, what are your choices? You can indisputably refuse to see your health care professional and continue your pattern of irresponsible drinking.
It actually doesn’t take a wiz kid, on the other hand, to have a handle on the fact that continuous, out-of-control drinking, if left untreated, will go downhill over time and quite probably result an early death. For that reason, your most positive alternative is to face up to your drinking problem and get the alcohol therapy you need.
The Pretext of the Functioning Alcoholic
It is almost counter intuitive to note the fact that several alcohol addicted individuals lead busy and active lives and have vehicles, jobs, pets, houses, families, and any number of material possessions just like people who are not addicted to alcohol.
Many of these “functional” alcohol dependent people may have never been cited for a DWI and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol generated legal difficulties. Despite this fortunate situation, however, these alcohol dependent individuals need to drink in order to function on a daily basis while upholding their facade as they interact with the outside world.
Ask anyone who has seen them when they are bingeing or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcohol addiction, nevertheless, and they will be quick to maintain the validity of the drinker’s situation and the whole story about the alcohol dependent individual’s drinking condition and about his or her alcohol generated predicaments.
Why Do Alcohol Addicted People Fail to See Their Drinking Difficulties?
As alcohol addiction research and statistics on alcohol abuse have emphasized, no matter how clear the alcohol generated problems seem to those who interact with the alcohol addicted individual, alcohol dependent people regularly deny that drinking is the basis of their alcohol induced problems. Not only this, but alcohol addicted individuals often blame their alcohol-related problems on other people or upon other circumstances that surround them rather than seeing their part in the problem.
The source of the problem is that alcohol dependency is a disease of the brain. Once the problem drinker has become addicted to alcohol, he or she regularly resorts to denial, manipulation, and dishonesty as a way of coping with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make the situation more complex, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms often thwarts the alcohol dependent individual’s rare attempts to suddenly stop drinking. As depressing as the alcohol addicted person’s existence is, to the contrary, the good news is that professional help is generally available – if the alcohol addicted individual reaches out and tries to get alcoholism therapy.
Conclusion
Owning up to the fact that drinking is triggering difficulties in your daily functioning is perchance the easiest way to find out if you have a problem with your drinking. More to the point, if your drinking is bringing about problems with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the law, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be addressed.
If you have a problem with your drinking, furthermore, this means that you are involving yourself in excessive drinking.
While some problem drinkers may be able to pinpoint their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their problems, and greatly decrease the quantity and rate of their drinking, others, then again, need to deal with their drinking difficulties by getting professional alcohol treatment. What’s more, due to their penchant to deny the facts and warp the truth, alcoholics unquestionably need quality alcoholism therapy for their abusive drinking.
And finally, if you feel more depressed the more you drink, it is likely that you will need to get motivated or inspired to receive treatment for your problem drinking and for your depression.
A Young Woman Decides to See Her Family Physician About Her Alcohol Problems and Her Depression
Rochelle decided to go and see her physician about her abusive drinking. At first, Rochelle thought she would be able to merely go on the world wide web, look for some essential alcohol abuse and alcoholism information and decide whether or not she was dependent on alcohol. Not unexpectedly, she located a number of websites that highlighted some of the typical symptoms of alcoholism. That’s the good news. The less positive news, regrettably, was that Rochelle showed evidence of several of these alcoholism symptoms.
Symptoms of Alcohol Dependency: Some Examples
For instance, Rochelle was drinking a lot more than normal and she was beginning to have more passionate arguments with her spouse. Moreover, for the first time in her life she was going through sleeping difficulties. In a similar manner, Rochelle frequently felt depressed and on a growing basis she had been manifesting poor concentration while on her job.
What is more, she felt stressed out and more on edge on a regular basis and for the past few months she had shown evidence of foggy thinking while at work. Since Rochelle displayed all of these symptoms, she was justifiably concerned about her excessive drinking.
So Rochelle decided to contact her healthcare professional and schedule an appointment. In actual fact, this was problematic for Rochelle because her family doctor was also her parents’ physician. The springboard for her distress was this: at the risk of embarrassing her family, she had to go and make known her reckless and hazardous drinking behavior to her family physician.
When Rochelle arrived at the healthcare professional’s office, she candidly informed the healthcare professional about the consternation she had about her excessive drinking behavior. When the family doctor asked what was stimulating this concern, Rochelle stated that she had gone on the world wide web and read about alcoholism and especially about alcohol addiction symptoms. She then outlined all of the alcohol addiction symptoms that she evidently thought she possessed.
An Exhaustive Physical Appraisal and Outpatient Alcohol Rehabilitation
The healthcare practitioner notified Rochelle that it was intelligent of her to attend to her drinking problems, he gave Rochelle an exhaustive physical exam, and recommended that she go into an out-patient alcohol rehabilitation program that was supervised by Doctor Cohen, one of his doctor partners.
Additionally, when Rochelle stated that she had been feeling depressed more often, the family physician notified Rochelle that depression and alcoholism routinely occur in the same individual. Therefore, the family physician also recommended that Rochelle seek therapy to address her melancholy.
The Merits of Addressing Your Drinking Difficulties and Getting Inspired About Making Positive, Healthy, and Successful Changes in Your Life
The family doctor made it a point to tell Rochelle that she might not necessarily be addicted to alcohol, but that she was without a doubt drinking in an irresponsible manner. Stated more explicitly, Rochelle was exhibiting alcohol abuse signs.
The healthcare practitioner then informed Rochelle that the reason he suggested alcohol rehabilitation in the first place was because he wanted her to face her drinking issues, make sure that she prevented them from going from bad to worse, and start to live in a more healthy manner, even if it meant that she had to fully refrain from drinking.
In short, by effectively treating her drinking difficulties, Rochelle would be able to get her drinking issues under control and refrain from the negative cycle that could doubtless lead to addiction to alcohol.
Obviously, Rochelle did not want to face the thought of getting admitted into an alcohol rehab facility. Nor was she elated about going to a counselor about her gloom. Regardless of these fears, nonetheless, Rochelle in point of fact felt some emotional relief for the first time in quite a few months because in the end she gave up making excuses for herself and at long last made up her mind to do something productive about her drinking problems.
With such a positive frame of mind, it was highly probable that Rochelle would be successful in her alcohol rehabilitation as well as in her therapy for her depression.
The Critical Elements in A Fruitful Alcohol Intervention
What are the necessary issues in a successful alcohol intervention? Why do some alcohol abuse interventions succeed as planned while quite a few flop?
The Necessity for a Recognized Reputation of Intervention Accomplishment
Scientific examination shows that a productive addiction intervention needs to be overseen by an intervention expert who has a well-known reputation of intervention accomplishment.
In actual fact this means that instead of making a choice for an “average” alcohol addiction healthcare practitioner or psychotherapist for an alcohol dependency intervention, the individual who is selected to carry out the intervention needs to be educated in alcohol intervention procedures and needs to possess a reputation of productive alcohol dependency interventions.
A Few Elementary Examples of The Most Optimal Time For an Alcohol Addiction Intervention
Scientific study and alcoholism facts about interventions has also revealed that the best time for an alcoholism intervention is following a meaningful “happening” in the life of the alcoholic or hazardous drinker. The following represents a few examples of these types of significant events:
- The alcohol addicted person or alcohol abuser has been caught stealing something of value.
- The abusive drinker or alcohol addicted individual has been caught lying about something of consequence.
- The alcohol dependent individual or alcohol abuser has been locked up for a DWI or DUI.
In circumstances like these, the alcohol dependent individual or alcohol abuser is more likely to feel sorry or to be embarrassed, thereby making him or her more willing to get the professional alcohol therapy that is needed.
At this moment in time, moreover, it is also imperative to accentuate the fact that the abusive drinker or alcohol addicted person needs to be alcohol-free during the alcohol intervention. To put it briefly, if the alcohol abuser or alcoholic is “under the influence” during an alcohol addiction intervention, the lack of success is virtually assured.
Moreover, scientific investigation has also made evident the fact that the abusive drinker or alcohol dependent individual has to at least try to listen to what is articulated in an alcohol dependency intervention. Stated more clearly, during an alcohol dependency intervention, the abusive drinker or alcohol dependent individual needs to listen to what his or her problem drinking has done to those who care for him or her the most.
The Critical Nature of Alcohol Counseling For the Heavy Drinker
And lastly, scientific examination demonstrates that the essential reason for an alcohol abuse intervention in the first place is to induce the alcohol abuser or alcohol addicted person to get the quality alcohol rehabilitation he or she needs. Stated more exactly, even if the person who manages the intervention has a marvelous record of productive interventions and even if the alcohol abuser or alcohol-dependent person in truth listens to every word that is stated throughout an intervention, if the abusive drinker or alcohol-dependent person is not inspired to obtain quality alcohol dependency therapy after the alcohol dependency intervention, then the intervention will be a disappointment.
Obviously all of these factors are needed for a fruitful alcohol intervention. If, alternatively, the hazardous drinker or alcohol dependent individual is not stirred to obtain alcohol addiction treatment after listening to his or her family members communicate the hurt, wrath, and displeasure they feel about the hazardous drinker’s or alcohol addicted person’s careless drinking behavior and the affection they feel for the problem drinker, then everything else that is part of an alcohol dependency intervention will basically be irrelevant.
Even Successful Alcohol Interventions Can Backfire In the Future
It also needs to be accentuated that in spite of the fact that the alcohol dependency intervention can be perceived as productive in that it helped put the hazardous drinker or alcoholic in a more receptive attitude and truly helped the alcohol addicted person or hazardous drinker deduce that he or she required alcohol treatment or professional help for alcoholism or alcohol abuse, the simple fact that the intervention happened may result in bitterness, irritation, and suspicion in the long term.
To sum up, even when alcohol dependency interventions are seen as effective in the short term, in the long term, however, they may backfire and, hence, might make the family and/or the alcohol dependent individual’s circumstance even poorer than it was before the alcohol dependency intervention was undertaken.
No matter how unfair or ironic this seems, try to keep in mind that it is essentially one of the main alcohol facts that has to be faced when doing an alcohol intervention.
A Reason For Joy and Happiness
Also keep in mind how exhilarating and moving it can be when an alcohol abuse intervention is successful. Why? When an alcohol intervention is successful, this means that the problem drinker understands what he or she has been doing to those who care the most about him or her and is now ready and willing to get treatment and start on the road to recovery.