A Young Couple Evaluates Their Excessive and Hazardous Drinking and Their Short and Long-Term Dreams, Hopes, and Plans
August 25th, 2009 by | Posted in General Comments OffAugie and Merissa have been seeing one another for eight years. They met while taking the same statistics class at a relatively large, rural, private liberal arts college located in the Eastern part of the United States. While they were just good pals at first, they eventually began dating when they were in their first year of college.
Given the fact that both of them came from very strict backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the casual drinking stage when they first began dating. As the time advanced, then again, they began to go to more keg parties, football bashes, sorority and fraternity parties, and happy hours. As a consequence, they little by little began to drink more as they proceeded in their relationship.
Their Social Life As a Rule Consisted of Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Professional Sporting Events, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, Going to Parties With Their Friends, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Disco on the Weekends
After they graduated, they both found jobs in a medium size city located roughly seventy miles from their undergraduate college. Then they decided to move into the same apartment with one another.
Because they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nonetheless, their social life generally consisted of going to restaurants three or four nights per week, going to professional sporting events, going to parties with their friends, going to happy hour with their friends, and going to the local bar with their buddies on the weekends. To come to the point, Merissa and Augie started to drink in an abusive manner.
Now that were living with one another and starting to get more unwavering about their relationship, nevertheless, they started to think about having children, becoming more responsible, getting married, and buying a house.
With any momentous adjustment in a person’s life there is normally something that produces the particular change in question. For Merissa and Augie the thought of having children and buying a new house was this “catalyst.” Stated more forcefully, for the first time in their lives, Merissa and Augie started to critically evaluate their hazardous and abusive drinking and the alcohol long term effects on their lives.
How Would Their Hazardous Drinking Affect Their Finances, Their Relationship With One Another, Their Ability to Have Children, Their Mental Health, and Their Relationship With Their Parents?
Would their drinking behavior negatively affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending most of their money on drinking if they were to start saving for a new house? How mature would they be if they had children and continued to drink in a hazardous and irresponsible manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term aspirations, goals, and dreams while they still drank in an irresponsible and hazardous manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their abusive and irresponsible drinking do to their relationship? How would their heavy and irresponsible drinking affect their mental health?
From a different viewpoint, although neither one of them ever suffered from alcohol poisoning, received a DUI, or experienced alcohol withdrawal symptoms, they realized that their excessive and heavy drinking was becoming a troublesome issue that they could not turn their backs on anymore.
After Giving Their Situation Some Serious Thought, Merissa and Augie Grasped the Fact That Their Hopes, Aspirations, and Dreams Would not be Fulfilled if They Continued Their Hazardous and Excessive Drinking
All of these questions unmistakably resulted in the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to be more aware that they couldn’t continue their abusive and heavy drinking if their dreams, goals, and aspirations were to be made real.
Once they settled upon this conclusion, they told their drinking pals about their plans to start a family, about their goal of buying or building a new house, and about their marital plans. They also told their drinking pals that they still wanted to associate with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this point forward so that they could begin realizing their future hopes, dreams, and plans.
Unexpectedly, all of their pals expressed relief because they too had been pondering the direction of their lives and concluded that their life-styles were much too frequently focused on drinking. They also understood that they would have to change radically if they were to become more mature and manifest more respect for their health, their careers, and for their goals in the next five or ten years.
After their frank discussion with their buddies about their goals, aspirations, and dreams, Merissa and Augie in reality started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their pals. The primary reason for this was the fact that all of them had the same way of thinking regarding their irresponsible and excessive drinking and their relatively short and long-term goals, aspirations, and plans.
