Miss Benning was a health instructor at the largest co-ed high school in the state. Although she had been teaching for only one year, she had already secured a reputation as a person with teaching techniques that motivated and encouraged her students to learn and to think.
For example, one Monday morning at 11:00 she addressed the students in her class and stated the following: “For the next few days we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wide-ranging viewpoint and we are also going to learn about some of the most common signs of alcoholism from a more detailed point of view.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will positively validate that an individual with a drinking problem is an individual who is addicted to alcohol, but the more signs that a person manifests, the greater the likelihood that he or she is an alcoholic.”
Miss Benning then informed the class that each person would be responsible for examining two alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her results to the other members in the class via a nine minute oral presentation.
The Pupils are Wound Up About Giving A Broad-Based Presentation to Their Fellow Students About Alcoholism Signs
After learning about the various signs of alcoholism for a number of days, the time had come for the individual presentations. It was at once evident that the pupils were excited about the subject matter because the material that they presented was first-rate. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm displayed by the students in her classroom regarding this subject could not be overstated.
The day after all of the pupils completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a piece of paper with a list of all the alcoholism signs that were discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked the students in her classroom to study the list and rank the top nine alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcohol addiction. After roughly five minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and explained to the pupils in her class that after she tallies the numbers, she will discuss her findings the next school day.
There was a real buzz 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 outcome of their in-class research.
The Pupils Compare Their Answers With the Findings From A Team of Alcoholism Specialists
When the next school day arrived, Miss Benning passed out a sheet of paper that listed the top five alcoholism signs according to the pupils’ rankings. To the right of these results, she added another column that was labeled “correct response.” She then told the students in her class that the numbers in the new column she added represented the responses that were articulated by a board of alcohol dependency authorities.
Miss Benning asked the students in her classroom to go over the data on the piece of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any concerns, issues, or questions. Within a minute or two, virtually every student in the classroom raised her or his hand. It was clear to see that the students had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. For instance, just about every pupil had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the professionals, namely, “Do you feel really sick when you refrain from drinking?”
The Major Difference Between Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Dependency and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the students in her classroom why this answer was the most straightforward indicator of alcohol dependency. She stressed the fact that the primary difference between alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.
Primarily this means that when a person who is alcohol dependent suddenly quits drinking, he or she will suffer through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then told her students that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the brain and by the body to the deficiency of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated another way, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling a person who is alcohol dependent that something is very misaligned and needs to be rectified. These signals consist of a number of uncomfortable, dangerous, and painful withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in a person’s death if the appropriate treatment is not immediately obtained.
Miss Benning then discussed the many different alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when a person who is addicted to alcohol abruptly stops drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to underscore was this: an individual who engages in alcohol abuse can experience almost any and every one of the alcohol dependency 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 clearly as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike alcoholics, are not alcohol dependent and accordingly, when they quit drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Feel They Have Discovered A Dissimilarity With the Findings From The Council of Substance Abuse Professionals
The students also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the chemical dependency professionals, that is to say, “Have you ever had a drink the first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?”
Miss Benning told the students in her class that this sign does not automatically imply that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does point to the need that alcohol dependent individuals have to drink in order to steer clear of alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the individual who is addicted to alcohol, the pupils started to understand the main difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.
To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked the pupils in her class to take out a piece 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 ask for alcoholism rehab?”
After about three or four minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ responses. While many students thought that roughly 85 to 95 percent of individuals who are addicted to alcohol would ask for alcohol addiction rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol dependency signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students thought that this number would not be less than 60 percent.
The Students Were Shocked to Learn That Only 25% of People Who are Addicted to Alcohol in the United States Ask For Alcohol Rehabilitation
To the surprise of most of the pupils, Miss Benning stated that according to different scientific investigations, only 25% of the individuals who are addicted to alcohol in the U.S. ask for alcohol dependency rehabilitation. This surprised most of the pupils because they thought that first-hand knowledge of the shocking facts and statistics linked to alcohol addiction would motivate the majority of the individuals who are addicted to alcohol to get alcohol addiction rehab.
Miss Benning then explained that alcohol addicted people not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also require alcohol everyday so they can prevent possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Evidently, the alcohol dependent individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than logic or facts. Undeniably, since the need for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol dependent person, this is a thorny issue that is difficult to overcome.
The Students are Excited to Learn About Alcohol Dependency Symptoms and Signs in Today’s Society
A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating the end of the class. Based on the excitement displayed by the students when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning knew that she had motivated and inspired her students to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our society.
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