Transcript for:
Jackie's Counseling on Alcohol Issues

hi Jackie how you doing today I'm pretty good yes how about you I'm doing okay thanks for asking I understand you've been having some difficulties that have um facilitated you to come into our agency yeah well well I mean I've been drinking uh a lot more than usual but MH it's kind of just part of my life but I don't know I think there is an increase so it's it's worrying me a little bit but all right so you feel like you're you're drinking more than usual mhm um how much are you drinking now um you I go out with my friends a couple nights a week and then about once a week I'll go out with um my co-workers so yeah go maybe three four nights a week right three or four nights a week you're drinking and how much are you drinking each time you go um you know it kind of depends on who I'm with but uh usually when I go off my friends on the weekend I'll stay for a pretty long time I mean I think the problem is when I'm going out during the week with my cooworker you know I'll stay longer than I want to and then when I have to get up in the morning it's kind of like H I should have gone I should have got home a little earlier but no they're all out with me so when I get there they they understand so all right so do you know how much alcohol like you talk about the time period do you know how much you're actually drinking each night like approximately um well before I used to drink like maybe two beers an hour MH but um they really like to party so and I trying to keep up with them so your friends yeah um so I've been drinking like a shot with the beers I have so maybe like three or four drinks an hour so do you find that you need to drink more to get the desired effect um yeah you know everyone else is getting to that level so I feel like I need to keep up with them and usually before I would get that from maybe one or two drinks so now I've been drinking a little bit more I think to get there have you made any attempts to cut down on consumption you know at the beginning of the week I'll kind of say I'm only going to go out twice this week but then they invite me and kind of like oh well I don't want to miss out they're my my friends you know um it's my show my social time during the week so so I usually go I don't really stick to the plan so that's kind of been a little frustrating but I know I still all right it's okay so I want to talk about the the time you spend um using alcohol are you are you okay with the amount of time you mentioned that you're using for longer periods mhm but are you okay with that or is that something that's distressing you um you know I think I could probably be doing better things with my time but it's not a huge problem I think a lot of people do it so yeah do you find that you have a craving for alcohol yeah yeah tell me about that I would say like uh when I'm at work I just just ready to get finished so I can go go to happy hour with my co-workers or uh you know if I'm just kind of at a barbecue or something with family think about how I want a beer MH so yeah the Cravings but you know everyone kind of does that like I could go for a beer right now so you're so you're thinking about it but you're also like feeling the craving yeah yeah yeah yeah okay you mentioned uh work you have any trouble with responsibilities at work or any other area no my work life has been pretty going pretty well I haven't missed work because of it or anything like that so because of the drinking yeah all right how about any social problems through the alcohol no I think my social life is actually great because of it you know hang out with my friends and we all get along really well so yeah it's my social time all right so no social problems no no problems have you had to give up any important activities because of the alcohol use important activities well usually the important activities involve drinking so that I haven't given up important activities that don't involve drinking but that's been pretty easy because there's usually alcohol at the important thing so you haven't missed any important activities because of that how about uh engaging in activities that are physically dangerous because alcohol is involved no no I'm usually pretty safe yeah safe yeah do you have any medical or mental health history um well like when I was a kid I was diagnosed with I think maybe ADHD or something like that but I think my teachers were annoyed by me because I just like to have a good time so but that's not really been an issue lately that's not been an issue no has any medical problem or mental health problem become worse because of the alcohol um no you know I started drinking after that so not no it's not become an issue with it all right so you mentioned alcohol use has there been any drug use no not with my drinking or anything you know typical teenage smoking marijuana and stuff when I was younger but I don't anymore so so it's just alcohol now yeah just alcohol all right do you have when you stop drinking do you have any physical symptoms or anxiety any symptoms of withdrawal no I usually feel fine afterwards I can go a few days without drinking okay so that's not a problem for you no all right Jackie are you open to receiving counseling services or agency yeah I I don't see why it would hurt anything I don't really know if I need it but but you be okay with trying yeah I think it would be okay all right I'm going to get you scheduled into to see a counselor I want to thank you for tell me about what's going on and for answer my questions it's been helpful yeah thank you