Changing Fortunes

It took quite a few years but Emily eventually determined that she had enough with her husband’s abusive and unhealthy drinking. She was sick of seeing Barry come home in the early hours of the morning from drinking instead of spending quality time with her and their three sons. She was also sick of the DUI Barry recently received. Additionally she was fed up from manufacturing justifications for Barry when he couldn’t make it to his job due to his problems with drinking. Not only this but she was nervous and depressed about the fact that their relationship was deteriorating due to Barry’s excessive and abusive drinking. And lastly she was exhausted from the hazardous financial jam into which he had placed his family because of his hazardous and careless drinking behavior. In a word, Emily felt that her mental health was fading away because of her husband’s drinking problems.

When Abusive Drinking Inspires a Person to do Something Beneficial About a Person’s Drinking Problem

One Tuesday evening when Emily was pondering what she could do about her husband’s abusive and hazardous drinking, she got to the point that she frankly had to do something positive to cut into the destructive cycle of Barry’s excessive and unhealthy drinking behavior.

So she looked in the local yellow pages under “alcohol rehab” and found scores of rehab clinics that were all located less than 10 miles away from where she and her husband lived.

Because she didn’t know too much about these rehabilitation facilities, she eventually decided that she needed to call some of them and ask a few questions. When she called each rehabilitation facility she introduced herself and articulated that her husband was engaging in abusive and unhealthy drinking behavior. She also stated that her spouse had a comprehensive health insurance program at his place of employment and that outpatient or inpatient alcohol abuse rehab would be covered if a health care professional in the company health network initiated the rehabilitation.

At one rehabilitation center, Emily was surprised that she was able to converse directly with a therapist who asked her to come to the rehabilitation facility to talk about her husband’s abusive and unhealthy drinking behavior in more detail.

Emily Talks to a Counselor About Her Husband’s Irresponsible and Hazardous Drinking

When Emily arrived at the rehabilitation clinic, she filled out some forms and then almost immediately got to see a healthcare professional.

After listening to Emily discuss her husband’s abusive and unhealthy drinking, the counselor in a helpful but firm way explained to Emily how she more likely than not played a major part in her husband’s excessive and abusive drinking through the months and the years by covering for him instead of letting him go through the consequences of his hazardous drinking behavior.

Emily Discovers She Has Been Enabling Her Husband’s Hazardous and Excessive Drinking

Stated in a slightly different way, the healthcare practitioner stated to Emily that she may have been inadvertently enabling Barry’s abusive and unhealthy drinking behavior. The psychologist also underlined the fact that even though Emily would not be able to control Barry’s behavior, with the encouragement and support of the treatment team at the treatment center she would not only be able to learn how to stop contributing to Barry’s abusive and hazardous drinking but she could also learn how to motivate him to schedule an appointment at the rehab facility so that he could discuss his careless and hazardous drinking behavior with a counselor.

The good news was that after Emily mentioned this to Barry, and he saw that she was serious, Barry told her that he had been quite upset with his abusive and excessive drinking behavior and that he was very relieved to hear that Emily wanted to do something positive about his excessive and abusive drinking behavior. As a consequence, he scheduled an appointment to see a healthcare professional at the local alcohol rehabilitation clinic.

Barry Agrees to Meet With a Psychologist About His Hazardous Drinking

While simply calling a rehabilitation program does not guarantee that an individual’s careless and abusive drinking behavior will stop or that one’s warning signs of alcoholism or the alcohol abuse signs one displays will simply go away, scheduling an appointment is unmistakably an essential aspect in the rehabilitation process. And since Barry was serious about getting quality assistance for his harmful drinking, the likelihood of a successful recovery was considerably enhanced.