A Young Woman Gets a Divorce, Gets Depressed, Engages in Heavy and Abusive Drinking, and Finds Excellent Help at an Alcohol Treatment Clinic

March 8th, 2010 Posted in Mental Health

Wendy was the mother of three children. Wendy had been feeling quite anxious lately and started to “medicate” herself by having three or four wine coolers each evening after she tucked her children into bed. After approximately three weeks of this drinking routine, she eventually understood the fact that instead of helping her relax and ”manage” her difficulties, drinking made her feel less rested when she awakened. This, in turn, made her feel more stressed throughout the day.

After thinking about her “condition” for four or five days, Wendy made up her mind to discuss her drinking problem with her best friend. In fact, roughly twenty minutes into their chat, Wendy’s friend, Ella, told her that she knew about an extremely skillful and experienced psychiatrist at the local alcohol and drug treatment facility. After talking to her friend, Wendy almost instantly got motivated to call the rehab center and schedule an appointment.

Six days later she eventually got to meet the psychiatrist her friend had talked about. After their short-and-to-the-point introduction, Wendy told the psychiatrist that ever since her husband and she got divorced, she has been struggling financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

At times, she felt that she was totally over the divorce. Recently, to the contrary, she has been feeling very depressed about the fact that her former husband and she couldn’t stay married and “make it”. When asked by the psychiatrist how long she and her ex-husband went together before they got married, Wendy told the doctor that she and her former husband, Robert, 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 psychiatrist, she highlighted the point that she frankly believed that she and her former husband waited long enough to know each other well enough before they got married. After the kids started to arrive, however, their relationship seemed to worsen. To make matters worse, both Robert and she began to drink, and their irresponsible and abusive drinking negatively affected their finances, their relationship, and their love for one another.

When things got nasty between them, Robert hired a divorce attorney and filed for a divorce. Even though things were clearly not going well and even though she was routinely depressed, Wendy told the psychiatrist that she did not want to bring an end to their relationship. Once she received her divorce papers, however, she knew that their marriage was over.

The doctor told Wendy that the anxiety, tension, and stress that she has been going through regarding her excessive and irresponsible drinking are some of the more commonplace alcohol abuse effects and that the best solution for this state of affairs is rehab for one’s alcohol abuse. In fact, getting alcohol abuse treatment is critical because continuous drinking can get the drinker into even more severe alcohol and alcoholism difficulties.

After eleven or twelve therapy sessions with her doctor, Wendy was gradually able to realize that the real basis of her stress and her depression was that she had not resolved her spiteful feelings she has for her ex-husband who had divorced her four years ago. With these insights and with the drugs her psychiatrist prescribed, she eventually abstained from drinking, she began to feel considerably less depressed, and she started making time for social events with her friends and family. A few months after receiving counseling from her psychiatrist, she even started to date once again.

It was clear that Wendy had come a long way. Indeed, just about five months after she terminated her therapy, Wendy had finally laid the harmful thoughts of her ex-husband to rest and was beginning to feel more self respect and more spiritually “sound” and emotionally “together” than she had ever felt in her life.