A Health Instructor in the Most Financially Challenged Co-Educational High School in the State Instructs Her Pupils About the Relevance of Alcohol Dependency Signs
Miss Benning was a health teacher at the most financially challenged private high school in the district. Even though she had been teaching for only four years, she had already acquired a reputation as an educator with educational approaches that encouraged and inspired pupils to think and to learn.
For example, one Friday morning at 8:30 she addressed her students and announced the following: “For the next week we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more broad-based perspective and we are also going to learn about several of the most basic signs of alcoholism from a more detailed point of view.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will positively show that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcohol dependent person, but the more signs that a drinker displays, the greater the possibility that he or she is an alcoholic.”
Miss Benning then informed the class members that each individual would be accountable for studying four alcohol dependence signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the class via a fifteen minute oral presentation.
The Students are Enthused About Giving A Detailed Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About Alcohol Dependency Signs
After learning about the various signs of alcohol addiction for quite a few days, the time had arrived for the student presentations. It was at once noticeable that the pupils in her class were wound up about the subject because the information that they presented was first-rate. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm exhibited by the pupils in her class regarding this subject could not be overstated.
The day after all of the students completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a piece of paper with a list of all the alcohol addiction signs that were presented and discussed in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked her pupils to study the list and rank the top seven alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After approximately ten minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and explained to her students that after she examines the results, she will reveal her findings the next school day.
There was some real excitement by the students while they were exiting Miss Benning’s class. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to arrive so that they could find out the results of their in-class research.
The Pupils Compare Their Numbers With the Evaluations From A Team of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Specialists
When the next school day arrived, Miss Benning gave out a sheet of paper that listed the top four alcohol dependency signs according to the pupils’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ response.” She then told the students in her classroom that the numbers in the additional column she added signified the findings that were stated publicly by a council of drug and alcohol addiction specialists.
Miss Benning told the pupils in her classroom to look over the information on the sheet of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any questions, issues, or concerns. Within 40 or 50 seconds, almost everyone in the classroom raised her or his hand. It was apparent that the students had some questions, concerns, or issues about their results versus the answers given by the specialists. For instance, virtually every student disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the professionals, to be exact, “Do you feel extremely sick when you quit drinking?”
The Main Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then informed the pupils in her classroom why this answer was the most accurate indicator of alcohol addiction. She emphasized the fact that the main difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcoholism and not with alcohol abuse.
Essentially this means that when an individual who is alcohol dependent all of a sudden stops drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then informed her pupils that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the brain and by the body to the lack of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated more precisely, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an alcohol dependent individual that something is exceedingly out of kilter and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of a number of painful, uncomfortable, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can possibly lead to an individual’s death if the proper therapy is not immediately received.
Miss Benning then listed the many diverse alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an individual who is addicted to alcohol abruptly quits drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to emphasize was this: an individual who engages in alcohol abuse can experience almost any and every one of the alcoholism signs that the students had ranked, but the one sign or symptom that few, if any, alcohol abusers ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To state this as precisely as possible, Miss Benning stressed the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike people who are alcohol dependent, are not alcohol dependent and as a consequence, when they quit drinking, they almost never go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Pupils Think They Have Uncovered An Inconsistency With the Findings From The Group of Alcohol Dependency Specialists
The pupils also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the alcohol dependency authorities, to be exact, “Have you ever had a drink the first thing in the morning to get rid of a hangover or to steady your nerves?”
Miss Benning informed her pupils that this sign does not inevitably suggest that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does point to the need that people who are addicted to alcohol have to drink in order to steer clear of alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is addicted to alcohol, the pupils started to understand the fundamental difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
To add a sense of closure to the subject matter, Miss Benning asked the students in her class to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every individual who is alcohol dependent knew about every one of the alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would seek alcoholism rehab?”
After roughly four or five minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ predictions. While many pupils figured that around 80 to 90 percent of alcohol addicted people would obtain alcohol dependency treatment if they knew about the facts related to alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students thought that this number would not be less than 65 percent.
The Pupils Were Shocked to Find Out That Only 25% of Individuals Who are Alcohol Dependent in the United States Obtain Alcohol Dependency Treatment
To the astonishment of most of the students, Miss Benning proclaimed that according to various scientific studies, only 25% of the alcohol dependent individuals in the United States obtain alcoholism treatment. This surprised most of the students because they thought that exposure to the abysmal facts and statistics linked to alcohol addiction would motivate the majority of the alcohol dependent people to ask for alcohol addiction treatment.
Miss Benning then stated that people who are alcohol dependent not only need alcohol on a daily basis in order to function but they also need alcohol on an everyday basis so they can avert possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Clearly, the alcohol dependent person’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than facts or logic. Without a doubt, because the craving for alcohol is “reality” to the alcoholic, this is a challenging issue that is hard to undo.
A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating the end of the class. Based on the buzz displayed by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning realized that she had motivated and inspired the students in her class to stop and think about a vital health and social problem that exists in our culture.
