A Young Couple Appraises Their Heavy and Hazardous Drinking and Their Short and Long-Term Plans, Hopes, and Dreams
Augie and Merissa have been dating one another for five-and-a-half years. They met while taking the same criminal justice class at a relatively large, rural, private liberal arts college located in the Eastern part of the U.S. While they were just good pals at first, they eventually started dating when they were in their second year of college.
Because both of them came from very strict backgrounds, neither one of them drank much beyond the social drinking stage when they first began dating. As the time proceeded, nonetheless, they started to go to more happy hours, football bashes, keg parties, and sorority and fraternity parties. Consequently, they little by little began to drink increasingly more the longer they dated.
Their Social Life Commonly Consisted of Going to Professional Sporting Events, Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Parties With Their Friends, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Discotheque on the Weekends
After they graduated, they both got jobs in a small city located about seventy miles from their undergraduate college. Then they eventually decided to move into the same apartment together.
Given the fact that they were far removed from the college drinking scene, however, their social life as a rule consisted of going to restaurants three or four nights per week, going to parties with their friends, going to happy hour with their friends, going to professional sporting events, and going to the local saloon with their pals on the weekends. Stated another way, Augie and Merissa began drinking in a hazardous manner.
Now that they were living with each other and starting to get more steadfast about their relationship, however, they started to think about becoming more responsible, buying a house, having children, and getting married.
With any significant change in an individual’s life there is typically something that starts the particular transformation in question. For Merissa and Augie the idea 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 review their excessive and abusive drinking and the alcohol long term effects on their lives.
How Would Their Hazardous Drinking Affect Their Relationship With Their Parents, Their Mental Health, Their Finances, Ability to Have Children, and Their Relationship With One Another?
Would their abusive and hazardous drinking adversely affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending a large percentage of their money on drinking if they were to start saving for a new house? How accountable would they be if they had children and continued to drink in a hazardous and abusive manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term dreams, goals, and aspirations while they still drank in an excessive and irresponsible manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their heavy and abusive drinking do to their relationship? How would their heavy and abusive drinking affect their mental health?
From a different line of reasoning, although neither one of them ever suffered from alcohol poisoning, received a DUI, or experienced alcohol withdrawals, they realized that their hazardous and abusive drinking was becoming a problem that they could not disregard anymore.
After Giving Their Circumstances Much Thought, Merissa and Augie Concluded That Their Plans, Dreams, and Hopes Would not be Attained if They Continued Their Irresponsible and Heavy Drinking
All of these inquiries clearly led to the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to realize more fully that they couldn’t continue their abusive and hazardous drinking if their hopes, dreams, and plans were to be made real.
Once they came to this conclusion, they alerted their drinking friends 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 friends that they still wanted to pal around with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this point forward so that they could begin realizing their future plans, hopes, and dreams.
Much to their amazement, all of their friends expressed relief because they too had been reevaluating their lives and concluded that their life-styles were too centered around drinking. They also believed that they would have to change notably if they were to become more responsible and exhibit more respect for their careers, their goals, and for their health in the next ten or fifteen years.
After their candid chat with their pals about their goals, dreams, and aspirations, Augie and Merissa essentially started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their pals. The main reason for this was the fact that all of them had the same frame of mind regarding their hazardous and excessive drinking and their short and long-term goals, plans, and aspirations.