Augie and Merissa have been going out for four years. They met while taking the same statistics class at a relatively small, rural, Church affiliated liberal arts college located in the Southern part of the United States. While they were basically good buddies at first, they at long last began dating when they were in their third year of college.

Because both of them came from very strict backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the testing stage when they first started to date. As the time progressed, however, they began to go to more keg parties, sorority and fraternity parties, football bashes, and happy hours. As a consequence, they in a step-by-step fashion began to drink more the more they interacted with one another.

Their Social Life Commonly Consisted of Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, Going to Professional Sporting Events, Going to Parties With Their Friends, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Watering Hole on the Weekends

After they graduated from college, they both landed jobs in a small city located just about ninety-five miles from their undergraduate college. Then they at long last decided to move into the same apartment together.

Given the fact that they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nevertheless, their social life generally consisted of going to restaurants three or four nights per week, going to happy hour with their friends, going to parties with their friends, going to professional sporting events, and going to the local watering hole with their pals on the weekends. Stated another way, Augie and Merissa began drinking in an irresponsible manner.

Now that they were living in the same apartment with one another and beginning to get more serious about their relationship, nonetheless, they began thinking about buying a house, having children, getting married, and becoming more responsible.

With any big modification in an individual’s life there is regularly something that causes the specific modification in question. For Augie and Merissa the notion of having children and buying a new house was this “trigger.” Stated simply, for the first time in their lives, Augie and Merissa began to critically evaluate their excessive and irresponsible drinking and the alcohol long term effects on their health.

How Would Their Abusive Drinking Affect Their Mental Health, Their Relationship With Their Parents, Their Finances, Their Relationship With One Another, and Their Ability to Have Children?

Would their irresponsible and abusive drinking unfavorably affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending most of their money on drinking if they were to begin saving for a new house? How mature would they be if they had children and continued to drink in an abusive 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 manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their abusive and heavy drinking do to their relationship? How would their abusive and irresponsible 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 withdrawal symptoms, they realized that their hazardous and excessive drinking was becoming an issue that they could not ignore any longer.

After Giving Their State of Affairs Some Serious Thought, Merissa and Augie Concluded That Their Hopes, Dreams, and Plans Would not be Accomplished if They Continued Their Heavy Drinking

All of these inquiries undeniably led to the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to realize more fully that they couldn’t continue their irresponsible and hazardous drinking if their dreams, aspirations, and hopes were to be reached.

Once they got to this conclusion, they advised their drinking buddies about their goal of buying or building a new house, about their marital plans, and about their plans to start a family. They also told their drinking pals that they still wanted to associate with them but that they would be drinking responsibly from this moment forward so that they could start to realize their future dreams, goals, and aspirations.

Much to their amazement, all of their pals expressed relief because they too had been reexamining their lives and concluded that their life-styles were too focused on drinking. They also realized that they would have to change significantly if they were to become more mature and manifest more concern for their health, their careers, and for their aspirations in the next ten or fifteen years.

After their frank chat with their pals about their aspirations, dreams, and goals, Merissa and Augie basically 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 hazardous drinking and their relatively short and long-term aspirations, goals, and plans.

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