Augie and Merissa have been dating for eight-and-a-half years. They met while taking the same Greek philosophy class at a relatively large, countryside, Church affiliated liberal arts college located in the Northern part of the United States. While they were in essence good friends at first, they at long last began dating when they were in their second year of college.

Since both of them came from very conservative backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the testing stage when they first started to date. As the time advanced, then again, they started to go to more football bashes, keg parties, sorority and fraternity parties, and happy hours. As a result, they gradually began to drink increasingly more as time passed by.

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

After they graduated, they both found jobs in a small city located just about eighty miles from their undergraduate college. Then they decided to move into the same apartment together.

Due to the fact they were far removed from the college drinking scene, however, 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 nightspot with their friends on the weekends. Stated more explicitly, Augie and Merissa started to drink in an abusive and excessive manner.

Now that they were living in the same apartment together and beginning to get more resolute about their relationship, however, they started to think about becoming more responsible, buying a house, getting married, and having children.

With any pivotal modification in a person’s life there is typically a trigger the specific adjustment in question. For Merissa and Augie the idea of having children and buying a new house was this “catalyst.” In brief, for the first time in their lives, Augie and Merissa began to critically review their abusive and hazardous drinking and the alcohol long term effects on their lives.

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

Would their abusive and hazardous drinking negatively 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 begin saving for a new house? How accountable would they be if they had children and continued to drink in an excessive and irresponsible manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term aspirations, dreams, and goals while they still drank in an abusive and irresponsible manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their excessive and heavy drinking do to their relationship? How would their excessive 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 excessive drinking was becoming a thorny issue that they could not ignore any longer.

After Giving Their Situation Much Deliberation, Merissa and Augie Concluded That Their Dreams, Plans, and Hopes Would not be Met if They Continued Their Hazardous Drinking

All of these questions unmistakably led to the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to identify more completely with the fact that they couldn’t continue their hazardous and heavy drinking if their aspirations, hopes, and dreams were to be completed.

Once they got to this conclusion, they notified their drinking friends about their marital plans, about their goal of buying or building a new house, and about their plans to start a family. They also told their drinking friends that they still wanted to associate with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this moment forward so that they could start to realize their future hopes, plans, and dreams.

Much to their disbelief, all of their buddies expressed relief because they too had been reflecting on their lives and concluded that their life-styles were totally centered around drinking. They also understood that they would have to change drastically if they were to become more responsible and show more concern for their plans, their careers, and for their health in the next ten or fifteen years.

After their heart-to-heart conversation with their friends about their goals, aspirations, and dreams, Merissa and Augie actually started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their friends. The main reason for this was the fact that all of them had the same frame of mind regarding their hazardous and abusive drinking and their short and long-term plans, aspirations, and goals.

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