Excessive And Irresponsible Drinking Leads To Depression And Mental Health Issues, An Enabling Wife, And Motivation For Constructive Change

It took several years but Sarah finally made up her mind that she had it with her husband's careless and abusive drinking. She was worn-out from seeing Keith come home after 2:00 AM from drinking rather than spending much needed time with her and the kids. She was also fed up from the second DWI Keith recently got. In addition she was tired of making excuses for her husband when he couldn't make it to the office due to his abusive and hazardous drinking.

In a similar manner, she was concerned about the fact that their relationship was getting worse due to Keith's abusive and careless drinking. And finally she was sick and tired of the shaky financial predicament into which he had placed his family due to his negative drinking behavior.

One Friday evening when Sarah was thinking about what she could do about her husband's hazardous and careless drinking, she got to the point that she frankly had to do something positive to cut into the negative cycle of Keith's negative drinking behavior. So Sarah looked on the Internet under "alcohol rehabilitation" and discovered scores of treatment clinics that were all located less than 15 miles away from where she and her husband lived.

When Sarah called each rehab center she identified who she was and stated that Keith, her husband, was involved in abusive and unhealthy drinking behavior. She also articulated that Keith had a quality health insurance program at his job and that residential or outpatient alcohol dependency rehabilitation would be covered if a doctor in the company health plan authorized the rehabilitation.

After listening to Sarah describe her husband's abusive and careless drinking, the healthcare practitioner in an accommodating but resolute manner explained to Sarah how she more likely than not contributed to her husband's unhealthy and abusive drinking through the years. How? Basically by making excuses for him rather than allowing him to suffer the outcomes of his excessive and careless drinking behavior.

Stated more forcefully, the counselor told Sarah that she may have been unintentionally enabling Keith's careless and abusive drinking behavior. The healthcare practitioner also stressed the fact that Sarah could not control her husband's conduct. With the support and guidance of the rehab team at the treatment clinic, conversely, she would not only be able to learn how to avoid contributing to Keith's hazardous and careless drinking but she would also be able to learn how to encourage him to schedule an appointment at the rehabilitation facility so that he could discuss his abusive and hazardous drinking behavior with a psychologist.

The good news was that after Sarah mentioned this to her husband and he saw that she was serious, he told her that he had been quite anxious about his hazardous drinking behavior and that he was quite thankful to hear that Sarah wanted to do something positive about his excessive and hazardous drinking behavior. Consequently, he scheduled an appointment to see a healthcare practitioner at the local alcohol rehab facility.

While simply calling a treatment clinic does not mean that a person's abusive and hazardous drinking behavior will become less problematic or that a person will automatically be more receptive to learning about alcohol abuse facts, making an appointment is obviously a requisite factor in the treatment process. And due to the fact that Keith wanted to learn more about alcohol abuse statistics, about getting rehab for his careless and abusive drinking, and about alcohol abuse and alcoholism the probability for a successful recovery was substantially enhanced.