Joe Clay Case Study

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Patient Characteristics The patient, Joe Clay, is a 35 year old white, American male that works in public relations in San Francisco, CA. He has a flirtatious and vibrant personality, filled with bursts of impulsivity. Activities include social drinking due to his work and participating in parties.
Patient Functioning & Symptomatic Presentation The patient’s personality changes when he is around alcohol. When he meets his wife at the time, he pushes her boundaries into drinking alcohol, which can show that he has an enabling personality. As he is walking down the port, he keeps a big flask of liquor in his jacket pocket and says to her, “Anything that is worth having is worth suffering for.” This can reflect the mindset that he has to try
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Joe Clay displays all 11 of the criteria in one form or another. This presence places him in the category of severe impairment.
Joe Clay often takes alcohol in large amounts or over a longer period than is intended. Whenever he drinks he overindulges. And his problem has stretched over the course of his marriage and before. In one story, he recounted a dinner in where he had brought 3 different alcohols, for just 2 people. His story does not give clear time indicators, so it cannot be addressed exactly how long a period of time this has been occurring.
He has a many unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control his alcohol use. Twice he tried to completely cut out his alcohol consumption, with disastrous results. In both instances, the craving become so strong it led to mental break, leading to him psychiatric hospital. In the 7 years of his marriage, Joe had only been sober for 6 months of that time. And we are unaware of his condition prior to his
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He eventually lost his job due to the drinking. And subsequently, he went through 5 jobs in four year due to his inability to fulfill any major obligations. Even in his home life, there is little mention of his daughter, most often she is referred to as being with her grandfather, his father-in-law.
He has continued alcohol use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of alcohol. The drinking caused many problems with his wife, among them was causing his wife to become an alcoholic herself. In a drunken rage, he told his nursing wife that she was gonna ruin her shape and pressured her into drinking. He gave no thought to the harm his wife’s drinking alcohol could have on his own child. He really gave no thought to his child, just generally. She seemed more an afterthought or obstacle to his drinking.
He gives up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of alcohol use. He mentioned multiple times that he used to dress better before, but has since given up that aspect of his life, in order to spend that money on alcohol. In one instance, his father-in-law lent him 500 dollars to try and get started again, but he spent it all on a

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