A Health Teacher In The Most Financially Challenged Co-Educational High School In The County Encourages Her Pupils To Learn About Alcoholism Signs And How To Bolster Their Positive Attitude, Self Esteem, And Personal Happiness And Success
Miss Benning was a health teacher at the most financially challenged co-educational high school in the county. Even though she had been teaching for only five years, she had already established a reputation as a teacher with instructional methods that motivated and inspired the pupils in her class to learn and to think.
For example, one Monday morning at 9:00 she addressed the pupils in her classroom and announced the following: “For the next three or four 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 typical signs of alcoholism from a more specific perspective.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will categorically validate that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcohol dependent person, but the more signs that a drinker displays, the greater the probability that he or she is an individual who is alcohol dependent.”
Miss Benning then explained to the students in the class that each person would be responsible for investigating three alcohol dependence signs and then presenting his or her results to the other class members via a twenty minute oral presentation.
The Pupils are Excited About Giving An In-Depth Presentation to Their Fellow Students About The Signs of Alcoholism
After learning about the diverse signs of alcoholism for several days, the time had arrived for the student presentations. It was immediately apparent that the students in her class were enthused about the topic because the information that they presented was first-rate. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the eagerness exhibited by her students regarding this topic 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 discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked the pupils in her classroom to go over the list and rank the top ten alcohol dependency signs that were most indicative of alcoholism. After approximately fifteen minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and explained to her students that after she goes over the numbers, she will present her findings the next school day.
There was some real excitement by the pupils 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 learn about the outcome of their in-class research.
The Students Contrast Their Answers With the Evaluations From A Team of Alcohol Addiction Specialists
When the next school day finally came, Miss Benning handed out a sheet of paper that listed the top four alcoholism signs as per the pupils’ rankings. To the left of these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ answer.” She then informed the students in her classroom that the numbers in the second column she added were the findings that were generated by a group of drug and alcohol addiction authorities.
Miss Benning told the students in her class to look over the data on the sheet of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any issues, concerns, or questions. Within 10 or 20 seconds, just about every pupil in the classroom raised his or her hand. It was apparent that the pupils had some issues, concerns, or questions about their results versus the answers given by the professionals. As an illustration, virtually every person in the classroom disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the specialists, namely, “Do you feel extremely sick when you refrain from drinking?”
The Essential Difference Between Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the pupils in her class why this answer was the most unambiguous indicator of alcohol addiction. She emphasized the fact that the chief difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.
Primarily this means that when an alcohol dependent person all of a sudden stops drinking, he or she will experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then explained to the students in her classroom 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 more forcefully, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the body and from the brain telling a person who is addicted to alcohol that something is dreadfully incorrect and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of a number of painful, dangerous, and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in a loss of life if the appropriate treatment is not immediately obtained.
Miss Benning then listed the many diverse alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an alcohol dependent person suddenly stops drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to highlight was this: a person 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 explain this as clearly as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol dependent people, are not alcohol dependent and accordingly, when they stop drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Pupils Believe They Have Discovered An Irregularity With the Findings From The Group of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Experts
The students also disagreed with the second ranked answer given by the alcohol dependency professionals, to be exact, “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 explained to the pupils in her classroom that this sign does not automatically imply that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does point to the need that people who are alcohol dependent have to drink in order to avert alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the importance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the individual who is alcohol dependent, the pupils started to grasp the major difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.
To add a sense of closure to the subject matter, Miss Benning asked her students to take out a piece of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is addicted to alcohol knew about every one of the alcoholism signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would obtain alcoholism rehab?”
After approximately three or four minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ answers. While many students believed that around 85 to 95 percent of people who are alcohol dependent would seek alcohol dependency rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol dependency signs, most of the students believed that this number would not be less than 60 percent.
The Students Were Surprised to Learn That Only 25% of Alcoholics in the United States Ask For Alcohol Addiction Treatment
To the shock of most of the pupils, Miss Benning stated that according to various scientific investigations, only 25% of the alcoholics in the U.S. ask for alcohol treatment. This astonished most of the students because they reasoned that first hand experience of the appalling statistics and facts correlated with alcohol dependency would motivate the majority of the alcohol dependent individuals to obtain alcohol addiction rehab.
Miss Benning then explained that alcohol addicted individuals not only need alcohol on a daily basis in order to function but they also require alcohol on a daily basis so they can avoid possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Apparently, the alcohol dependent individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than facts or logic. To be sure, because the desire for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol addicted individual, this is a thorny issue that is hard to change.
The Occurrence of Mental Health Difficulties and Alcohol Dependency Regularly Results in Relationship, Divorce, Friendship, and Marital Problems
Lastly, Miss Benning explained to the pupils in her class that it is relevant to comprehend that alcohol addiction and a range of mental health issues like depression are highly related. What is more, the combination of mental health problems and alcohol addiction often lead to relationship, divorce, marital, and friendship problems.
The Students are Eager to Learn About Alcoholism Symptoms and Signs in Today’s Society
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 classroom, Miss Benning knew that she had encouraged and stimulated the students in her class to stop and think about an important health and social problem that exists in our country. Clearly, her students also learned how to boost their self esteem, personal happiness and success, and positive attitude.
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Tags: alcoholism, happiness, relationships, self improvement
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