Miss Benning was a health instructor at the most popular private high school in the county. Even though she had been teaching for only four years, she had already achieved a reputation as an educator with educational techniques that inspired and stimulated students to learn and to think.
For example, one Wednesday morning at 9:00 she addressed her pupils and articulated the following: “For the next week 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 typical signs of alcoholism from a less general and more detailed standpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will absolutely show that someone with a drinking problem is an alcohol addicted person, but the more signs that an individual displays, the greater the likelihood that he or she is an alcohol dependent person.”
Miss Benning then explained to the members of the class that each individual would be responsible for researching three alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her results to the class via a five minute oral presentation.
The Pupils are Enthused About Giving A Detailed Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About Alcoholism Signs
After learning about the different signs of alcoholism for several days, the time had come for the oral presentations. It was instantly evident that the students in her class were excited about the subject matter because the material that they presented was first class. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the excitement exhibited by the pupils in her class concerning 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 alcoholism signs that were discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked her pupils to study the list and rank the top six alcohol dependency signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After around five minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and told the students in her classroom that after she tallies the numbers, she will reveal her findings the next school day.
There was some real anticipation by the pupils while they were walking out of 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 Group of Alcohol Dependency Specialists
When the next school day arrived, Miss Benning gave out a sheet of paper that listed the top four alcohol addiction signs as per the pupils’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “correct response.” She then told her students that the numbers in the additional column she added represented the responses that were generated by a board of drug and alcohol addiction specialists.
Miss Benning asked the pupils in her class to go over the information on the piece of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any concerns, issues, or questions. Within 20 or 30 seconds, just about everyone in the class raised her or his hand. It was clear to see that the students had some issues, questions, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the experts. For example, just about every individual in the class had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the authorities, to be precise, “Do you feel unusually ill when you refrain from drinking?”
The Principal Difference Between Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then informed her pupils why this answer was the most accurate sign of alcohol dependency. She emphasized the fact that the key difference between alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcohol addiction and not with alcohol abuse.
Basically this means that when an individual who is addicted to alcohol abruptly stops drinking, he or she will suffer through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then explained to the pupils in her class that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the body and by the brain to the deprivation of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated another way, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the body and from the brain telling an individual who is addicted to alcohol that something is dreadfully wrong and needs to be rectified. These messages consist of several uncomfortable, painful, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can potentially result in a loss of life if the appropriate therapy is not immediately undertaken.
Miss Benning then went over the host of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an alcohol dependent individual abruptly stops drinking.
The point that Miss Benning tried to stress was this: an individual who engages in alcohol abuse can experience almost any and every one of the alcohol addiction signs that the students had ranked, but the one symptom or sign that few, if any, alcohol abusers ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To state this as overtly as possible, Miss Benning stressed the point that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted individuals, are not alcohol dependent and consequently, when they quit drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Pupils Feel They Have Found A Variance With the Findings From The Board of Alcohol Dependency Authorities
The pupils also had a problem with the second ranked answer given by the chemical dependency authorities, to be precise, “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 her students that this sign does not inevitably mean that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does underscore the need that alcohol dependent people have to drink in order to keep away from alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the importance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is alcohol dependent, the students started to understand the primary difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked her students to take out a piece of paper and answer the following question: “if every individual 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 seek alcohol dependency rehab?”
After roughly five or six minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ predictions. While many pupils thought that about 70 to 80 percent of alcohol dependent people would seek alcohol addiction rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol addiction signs, most of the pupils reasoned that this number would not be less than 65 percent.
The Pupils Were Shocked to Discover That Only 25% of Alcoholics in the U.S. Get Alcoholism Rehabilitation
To the amazement of most of the pupils, Miss Benning proclaimed that according to different scientific investigations, only 25% of the people who are alcohol dependent in the United States get alcoholism rehab. This surprised most of the students because they thought that first-hand knowledge of the gruesome facts and statistics linked to alcohol addiction would motivate most of the people who are addicted to alcohol to seek alcohol addiction rehabilitation.
Miss Benning then stated that alcohol addicted individuals not only need alcohol on a daily basis in order to function but they also require alcohol everyday so they can avoid possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Apparently, the alcoholic’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than logic or facts. As a matter of fact, because the thirst for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol dependent person, this is very hard to change.
The Combination of Mental Health Difficulties and Alcohol Dependency Regularly Results in Marital, Relationship, Friendship, and Divorce Problems
Finally, Miss Benning told students that it is relevant to realize that alcoholism and a variety of mental health issues like depression are highly related. What is more, the incidence of alcohol dependency and mental health difficulties commonly lead to marital, relationship, friendship, and divorce problems.
The Students are Motivated to Learn About Alcohol Dependency Symptoms and Signs in Today’s Society
A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the buzz displayed by the students when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning recognized that she had motivated and inspired her students to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our country.