Larry is a fifteen-year-old teenager who has finally made up his mind that he needs to go and see his family healthcare practitioner about his drinking behavior.  At first, Larry thought he would be able to simply go online, look for some essential alcohol info, and make up his mind whether or not he was dependent on alcohol.

Not unexpectedly, he discovered scores of websites that specified some of the typical alcoholism symptoms.  That’s the encouraging news.  The less than positive news, sorry to say, was that Larry exhibited several of these alcoholism symptoms.

Symptoms of Alcoholism: Some Illustrations

As an illustration, Larry has been drinking quite a bit more than usual and he has begun to have more heated quarrels with his girlfriend.  In the same way, for the first time in his young life he has been having sleeping problems.  Similarly, Larry time and again has felt depressed and on a growing basis he has been manifesting poor attentiveness in the classroom.  In addition, he has felt highly stressed and more nervous on a regular basis and for the past five or six months he has shown evidence of murky thinking in the classroom.  Seeing as Larry has been exhibiting all of these symptoms, he was understandably uncomfortable about his excessive drinking.

So Larry finally decided to call his family physician and make an appointment.  In point of fact, this was hard for Larry because his doctor was also his parents’ family healthcare practitioner.  The source of his anxiety was this: at the risk of embarrassing his family, he had to go and make known his excessive and abusive drinking behavior to his healthcare practitioner.

When Larry arrived at the physician’s office, he plainly notified the family doctor about the anxiety he has about his hazardous drinking behavior.  When the family doctor asked what was setting off this worry, Larry acknowledged that he had gone online and read about dependency on alcohol and especially about alcohol addiction symptoms.  He then listed all of the alcohol addiction symptoms that he evidently thought he has.

A Complete Physical Exam and Outpatient Alcohol Rehab

The physician informed Larry that it was smart of him to tackle his drinking problems, he gave Larry a comprehensive physical appraisal, and suggested that he talk to his Mother and Father about going into an out-patient alcohol rehab center that was run by Doctor Rudnick, one of his doctor co-workers who is a chemical dependency and substance abuse specialist.

In much the same way, when Larry expressed the fact that he has been feeling a sense of gloom to a greater extent, the healthcare professional informed Larry that alcoholism and depression on a fairly regular basis happen in the same person.  For that reason, the family healthcare practitioner also suggested that Larry talk to his parents about seeking therapy in order to concentrate on his depression.  In fact, Larry can go to the local mental health center and make an appointment with Doctor Johnson, a distinguished counseling psychologist who specializes in treating adolescents.

The Significance of Coping With Your Drinking Problems

The physician made it a point to notify Larry that he might not necessarily be dependent on alcohol, but that he was obviously drinking in an abusive manner.  The healthcare professional then told Larry that the reason he suggested alcohol treatment in the first place was because he wanted him to confront his drinking difficulties, make sure that he stopped them from escalating, and start to live in a more healthy manner, even if it meant that he had to absolutely quit drinking.

To be brief, by effectively treating his problem drinking, Larry would be able to get his drinking issues under control and quit the negative cycle of events that could most likely lead to alcohol dependency.

Larry undoubtedly did not look forward to facing his Mom and Dad about his depression and his excessive drinking.  And he surely did not want to face the thought of getting admitted into an alcohol rehabilitation program.  And last but not least, he was not overjoyed about going to a clinical psychologist about his excessive sadness.  Notwithstanding these fears, nonetheless, Larry in actual fact felt some emotional relief for the first time in quite a few months because in the end he quit making excuses for himself and finally made up his mind that he needed to do something constructive about his careless and excessive drinking.