A Health Instructor in the Most Popular Parochial High School in the District Teaches Her Students About the Relevance of Alcohol Dependency Signs in Today’s Society
Miss Benning was a health instructor at the most popular co-ed high school in the region. Although she had been teaching for only two or three years, she had already secured a reputation as an educator with a teaching approach that encouraged and stimulated students to think and to learn.
For example, one Wednesday morning at 10:00 she addressed the students in her classroom and announced the following: “For the next week we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wind-ranging perspective and we are also going to learn about some of the most common signs of alcoholism from a less general and more explicit viewpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will unquestionably substantiate that a drinker with a drinking problem is an individual who is alcohol dependent, but the more signs that a drinker exhibits, the higher the probability that he or she is an alcohol dependent individual.”
Miss Benning then explained to the class that each pupil would be held responsible for researching three alcohol addiction signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the other class members via a nine minute oral presentation.
The Students are Excited About Giving A Relatively Long Presentation to Their Fellow Pupils About The Signs of Alcohol Dependency
After learning about the diverse alcohol addiction signs for a number of days, the time had arrived for the oral presentations. It was immediately apparent that the students in her class were energized about the topic because the material that they presented was extraordinary. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the interest exhibited by her pupils concerning this subject was an understatement.
The day after all of the students 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 the presentations and in class. Miss Benning then asked the pupils in her class to study the list and rank the top nine alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After around five minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and explained to the pupils in her classroom that after she assesses the results, she will present her findings the next school day.
There was a real buzz by the pupils while they were leaving Miss Benning’s class. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to arrive so that they could learn about the outcome of their in-class research.
The Students Compare Their Results With the Findings From A Team of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Specialists
When the next school day finally arrived, Miss Benning passed out a piece of paper that listed the top three alcohol addiction signs as per the students’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ response.” She then explained to the students in her classroom that the numbers in the second column she added represented the conclusions that were put together by a council of substance abuse professionals.
Miss Benning told her pupils to go over the data on the piece of paper she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any concerns, questions, or issues. Within 10 or 20 seconds, just about every student in the classroom raised her or his hand. It was apparent that the pupils had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the specialists. As an illustration, virtually every individual in the class disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the experts, specifically, “Do you feel exceptionally sick when you refrain from drinking?”
The Most Important Difference Between Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Dependency and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then explained to the students in her class why this answer was the most straightforward indicator of alcoholism. She pointed out the fact that the principal difference between alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol addiction and not with alcohol abuse.
Fundamentally this means that when an alcohol addicted person abruptly stops drinking, he or she will experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then informed her pupils that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the body and by the brain to the deficit of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated more forcefully, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an individual who is alcohol dependent that something is exceedingly out of kilter and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of a number of uncomfortable, dangerous, and painful withdrawal symptoms that can possibly lead to a fatality if the proper therapy is not promptly obtained.
Miss Benning then discussed the many diverse alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when an alcohol dependent individual suddenly quits drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to underline was this: an alcohol abuser 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, people who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To explain this as overtly as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike individuals who are addicted to alcohol, are not alcohol dependent and accordingly, when they stop drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Pupils Feel They Have Discovered A Deviation With the Findings From The Council of Substance Abuse Professionals
The students also had an issue with the second ranked answer given by the substance abuse specialists, that is to say, “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 told the students in her classroom that this sign does not automatically mean that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does point to the need that alcohol addicted people have to drink in order to keep away from alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the significance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the alcohol dependent person, the students started to recognize the essential difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.
To add a sense of closure to the subject, Miss Benning asked the pupils in her classroom to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is an alcoholic knew about every one of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol addiction signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would get alcohol addiction treatment?”
After approximately five or six minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ answers. While many students believed that roughly 70 to 80 percent of people who are alcohol dependent would ask for alcohol rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol dependency signs, most of the pupils reasoned that this number would not be less than 65 percent.
The Students Were Shocked to Learn That Only 25% of Individuals Who are Addicted to Alcohol in the United States Ask For Alcohol Dependency Rehabilitation
To the astonishment of most of the students, Miss Benning declared that according to different scientific investigations, only 25% of the people who are alcohol dependent in the United States get alcohol addiction rehab. This shocked most of the pupils because they reasoned that first-hand knowledge of the disgusting statistics and facts related to alcohol addiction would motivate most of the alcohol addicted individuals to obtain alcoholism treatment.
Miss Benning then stated that people who are addicted to alcohol not only need alcohol on an everyday basis in order to function but they also require alcohol everyday so they can prevent possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Obviously, the alcohol addicted individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than logic or facts. Without a doubt, since the craving for alcohol is “reality” to the individual who is alcohol dependent, this is a demanding issue that is hard to change.
A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the buzz manifested by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning knew that she had stimulated and encouraged the students in her class to stop and think about a noteworthy health and social problem that exists in our culture.
