Harmful Drinking Leads To Mental Health Issues And Depression, An Enabling Spouse, And Motivation For Affirmative Change

It took several years but Sarah at long last decided that she had it with her husband's excessive and abusive drinking. She was exhausted from seeing Keith come home after 2:00 AM from drinking instead of spending much needed time with her and their two daughters. She was also drained from the second DUI Keith recently received. Moreover she was sick and tired of manufacturing justifications for Keith when he couldn't make it to work on time due to his abusive drinking.

Not only this but she was concerned about the fact that their relationship was deteriorating due to Keith's excessive and careless drinking. And finally she was exhausted from the uncertain financial predicament into which he had placed his family due to his abusive and excessive drinking behavior.

One Sunday morning when Sarah was thinking about what she could do about her husband's careless drinking, she got to the point that she simply had to do something positive to cut into the destructive cycle of Keith's unhealthy drinking behavior. So Sarah looked on the Internet under "alcohol treatment" and found numerous treatment clinics that were all located less than twenty-five miles away from where Keith and she lived.

When Sarah called each rehab facility she identified who she was and said that her spouse was manifesting unhealthy and excessive drinking behavior. She also mentioned that Keith had an excellent health insurance program at his job and that inpatient or outpatient alcohol addiction rehabilitation would be covered if a doctor in the company health plan suggested the rehabilitation.

After listening to Sarah talk about her husband's careless and abusive drinking, the counselor in an accommodating but resolute way explained to Sarah how she probably contributed to her husband's careless and abusive drinking through the years. How? Basically by covering for him rather than letting him suffer the consequences of his abusive and careless drinking behavior.

Stated more precisely, the healthcare practitioner told Sarah that she may have been unintentionally enabling Keith's hazardous and abusive drinking behavior. The physician also highlighted the fact that Sarah would not be able to control Keith's actions. With the support and guidance of the rehab team at the healthcare center, conversely, she would not only be able to learn how to stop contributing to Keith's careless and excessive drinking but she could also learn how to encourage him to schedule an appointment at the rehabilitation clinic so that he could discuss his excessive and unhealthy drinking behavior with a physician.

Fortunately after Sarah revealed this to Keith and he saw that she was serious, he told her that he had been extremely concerned about his careless and abusive drinking behavior and that he was very thankful to realize that Sarah wanted to do something constructive about his excessive and careless drinking behavior. As a result, he made an appointment to see a physician at the local alcohol rehab facility.

While simply calling a rehab clinic does not guarantee that a person's excessive and abusive drinking behavior will become less problematic or that an individual will automatically be more willing to learning about alcohol abuse facts, calling for an appointment is certainly a vital step in the treatment process. And due to the fact that Keith wanted to learn more about alcohol abuse statistics, about getting counseling for his harmful drinking, and about alcohol abuse and alcoholism the probability for a successful recovery was substantially augmented.