Case Study - Dan
Dan drinks most nights and uses alcohol to relax. He doesn’t see this as a problem and does not want to change. He sees his alcohol use as normal. Listen as his GP talks to him about his drinking and uses motivational interviewing to help him examine how his drinking may be impacting his life.
GP And then, I just wonder what the alcohol is costing you? is that a stress, a financial stress for the family, given your wife is parenting and children, lovely as they are, are expensive?
Dan Yeah it is expensive and it comes up because I guess it does add up when you think about it in terms of what I might have spent on it, my wife said that, she said, "o you know we can't afford to be spending all of this money", and I try to get good deals on it and all that sort of stuff and sometimes the guys buy the drinks, but yeah it does, it does add up a bit, but it's hard, it's just what we do and just what we do after work, and I wouldn't say I'm drinking any more than any of the other guys and if they buy a round, then I need to buy a round, you know what I mean
GP Yes, so I'd be concerned about them too. Um so in terms of the physical health matters we do need to measure your blood pressure and examine your stomach and I think probably do some blood tests to check how your liver's doing
Dan Really? Just having that much can affect my liver?
GP Yes, yeah it could. It often may not give any symptoms
Dan it's not as though I'm drinking a bottle of whiskey a day or something like that
GP No, no, no, I want to absolutely stress that I have no moral view of your drinking, alcohol in moderation can be very pleasant and very safe
Dan Yep
GP It's when you're drinking to what we'd call in medical terms, excessive, the effects on your health can be quite significant. We also know it can affect your mental health, um so people sometimes drink when they have depression, to feel better, but the problem is that the alcohol actually compounds the depression
Dan For me it kind of helps, I kind of see it in the other way, in that, just stress you know, it's full on, the long days at work and then the income and my dad's sick and my wife's not working, and for me it’s like well, it kind of helps to relax you and calm you down a little bit and all of that you know
GP Yeah, and I guess you have to be out of bed fairly early
Dan Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, really early
GP To get to work
Dan Yeah, yeah, yeah
GP And then a lot of tradies have to do overtime on building sites
Dan Yeah, we do
GP Yeah, so I imagine when you get home, the children, you know, they often ark up in the evening and they're a bit tired and cranky and the house often quite a tense place
Dan Yeah, it is, well sometimes I don't get home in time and they've kind of gone to bed and I miss them a little bit and my wife gets a bit annoyed because I'm not there and that, but they wake up and stuff too, which is hard because I've got to get up early, and I wake up and it's noisy and yeah it's a bit stressful, yeah there's no doubt about that, and I'm trying to get ready in the mornings and I'm trying to go out and it's full on, it's really full on sometimes and I don't think people understand that, I don't think my wife understands that and it's a lot of responsibility and you're trying to juggle everything but you can't, you can’t kind of do it all, you know?
GP Yes, yes
Dan So a couple of drinks, I thought that's something just to relax me a little bit
GP So you've alluded to at times some tensions with your wife. Do you mind if I ask how the relationship's going?
Dan Yeah, um, I mean yeah just tension I guess, because she just goes on about the fact that I'm coming in late, I’m going out for a drink after work and she's at home and then, "why don't you see the kids?" and but you know it's that whole kind of, it's a tough situation, because I do have to work and as you say I've got to do long hours sometimes and I have to be up early and I have to be onsite and you know, so I can kind of see where she's coming from but yeah no we argue about it and there's money and all that kind of stuff and money strains and then she says you're spending too much money and you shouldn't be drinking. So we have those arguments but I guess that's normal relationships isn't it, I mean, I guess that's what happens?
GP Are there any plans for her to return to work, because you said your younger child's one?
Dan yeah
GP Is she on maternity leave or your plan is for her to stay home? And parent full time
Dan oh probably parent full time, at least maybe, until school kind of age you know
GP Ok
Dan So then maybe she can go back part-time then or something like that
GP Yes, yes
Dan So it's just so much like childcare and all that's expensive and yeah it doesn't make sense that you know she might as well just stay at home
GP Yeah so I can see you're in quite a challenging situation
Dan Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s full on, but you know, you’ve just got to get through it
GP I'd like to talk to you further about some of these matters and I think also we need to do a better job improving your back