Alchoholism Case Study

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Alchoholism Case Study

This case study took place at an Alcohol and Addiction Counselling Practice. This service offers people with drug or alcohol related problems an opportunity to increase their quality of life by: providing advice and information, one-to-one counselling, a gender specific alcohol and drug user group, a support group for people who have stopped drinking or using drugs and a family and friends support group.

The first interview with Claire took place in October 2000. Her psychiatrist referred Claire to our practice. His first contact with Claire was in August of the same year. She was referred to him by a hospital that had treated her for an attempted suicide. Although the psychiatrist is treating Claire for severe depression it has become apparent to him that she has a problem with alcohol. She is 30 years old and was divorced two years ago. She has no children. There is no partner in her life now or since her divorce and she lives in a rented one bed roomed house. She is unemployed and is currently in receipt of Income Support. Claire has requested a counselling programme that will help her to abstain from alcohol. She has not drunk any alcohol for two weeks prior to her appointment at this service, but she is on prescribed medication: tranquillisers and anti-depressants for depression.

The main objective of this interview is to gather information in order to assess which of our services will best benefit Claire to aid her with abstinence from alcohol. At the beginning of the interview it was explained to Claire that anything she told me would be confidential unless she disclosed anything that I felt was harmful to herself or to anyone else. It was then explained that in order to assess her situation, details of her background would be needed.

Claire was born in 1970 and has two brothers, one older and one younger. Her father was a lieutenant commander in the navy until Claire was eighteen years old. As a consequence of his naval career he was on occasions drafted to sea for durations of one and a half years. Claire loved her father and had a good relationship with him until he became aware of her alcohol abuse. Her relationship with her mother is strained and as a child Claire was very fearful of her and felt that she emotionally neglected her. This was not the case with her brothers and from an early age Claire came to the conclusion that her mother loved her brothers but not herself. She has never been able to sustain any real friendships with her peers and as a teenage Claire was three stone overweight.

At the age of seventeen Claire became involved with a group who abused drugs. Her drug intake eventually progressed from smoking cannabis to taking speed orally. Eventually at the age of nineteen Claire was experiencing physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms as a result of drug abuse. During this time she was employed as a Civil Servant and had a demanding job as personal assistant. Claire's parents did become aware of her drug abuse but she feels that due to their inability to cope with the situation they chose to ignore it. Claire eventually decided to disconnect herself from her 'drug' acquaintances and immediately started to abuse alcohol. She said that the alcohol was better than the drugs as it enabled her in social situations to feel less inhibited and shy.
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For a few years Claire's alcohol consumption was confined to weekends when she would get very drunk. During the week she would feel very low and depressed. After a serious relationship had ended and resulted in Claire seeking an abortion she felt that her drinking had crossed over some imaginary line. Claire had no counselling before or after her abortion and as a Catholic she suffered deep feelings of guilt and felt that she had committed a murder. She hide this feelings from her parents and felt that it was then that she commenced to use alcohol to ...

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