A Young Couple Evaluates Their Abusive Drinking and Their Short and Long-Term Hopes, Aspirations, and Dreams
Merissa and Augie have been seeing one another for four-and-a-half years. They met while taking the same computer science class at a medium size, country, Church affiliated liberal arts college located in the Midwestern part of the U.S. While they were mainly good pals at first, they finally started to date when they were in their second year of college.
Given the fact that both of them came from very ”old school” backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the experimental stage when they first began dating. As the time progressed, nevertheless, they began to go to more sorority and fraternity parties, happy hours, football bashes, and keg parties. As a result, they progressively began to drink increasingly more as time went by.
Their Social Life Regularly Consisted of Going to Parties With Their Friends, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Professional Sporting Events, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Club on the Weekends
After they graduated from college, they both got jobs in a relatively small city that was located approximately seventy-five miles from their undergraduate college. Then they eventually made up their mind to move in with one another.
Given the fact that they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nonetheless, their social life generally consisted of going to professional sporting events, going to parties with their friends, going to restaurants three or four nights per week, going to happy hour with their friends, and going to the local club with their buddies on the weekends. Stated more forcefully, Augie and Merissa began drinking quite abusively.
Now that they were living with each other and starting to get more committed to their relationship, then again, they began to think about buying a house, becoming more responsible, having children, and getting married.
With any big adjustment in a person’s life there is frequently something that elicits the specific change in question. For Augie and Merissa the thought of buying a new house and having children was this “vehicle for change.” Simply put, for the first time in their lives, Augie and Merissa started to critically evaluate their abusive and excessive drinking and the long term effects of alcohol on their health.
How Would Their Excessive and Hazardous Drinking Affect Their Relationship With One Another, Their Ability to Have Children, Their Finances, Their Relationship With Their Parents, and Their Mental Health?
Would their abusive and hazardous drinking unfavorably affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending so much money on drinking if they were to start saving for a new house? How adult-like would they be if they had children and continued to drink in an abusive and irresponsible manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term hopes, dreams, and plans while they still drank in an abusive and excessive manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their irresponsible and heavy drinking do to their relationship? How would their abusive and hazardous 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 excessive and abusive drinking was becoming a troublesome issue that they could not ignore anymore.
After Giving Their Circumstances Some Serious Thought, Merissa and Augie Finally Comprehended That Their Hopes, Aspirations, and Dreams Would not be Attained if They Continued Their Hazardous and Excessive Drinking
All of these inquiries clearly indicated the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to comprehend that they couldn’t continue their heavy and abusive drinking if their dreams, plans, and hopes were to be met.
Once they arrived at this conclusion, they alerted their drinking buddies about their their goal of buying or building a new house, about their plans to start a family, and about their marital plans. They also told their drinking pals that they still wanted to hang out with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this time forward so that they could begin realizing their future goals, dreams, and aspirations.
Unpredictably, all of their buddies expressed relief because they too had been contemplating their lives and concluded that their life-styles were much too often centered around drinking. They also understood that they would have to change substantially if they were to become more accountable and manifest more respect for their careers, their goals, and for their health in the next fifteen or twenty years.
After their frank discussion with their pals about their hopes, dreams, and plans, Augie and Merissa in actual fact started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their buddies. The main reason for this was the fact that all of them had the same attitude regarding their abusive and heavy drinking and their relatively short and long-term plans, goals, and aspirations.