A Health Teacher in the Most Popular Private High School in the State Instructs Her Pupils About the Importance of Alcohol Addiction Signs
Miss Benning was a health teacher at the best known co-ed high school in the district. Even though she had been teaching for only three of four years, she had already gained a reputation as a person with instructional approaches that stimulated and inspired her pupils to learn and to think.
For instance, one Thursday morning at 10:30 she addressed her students and said the following: “For the next week we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wide-ranging point of view and we are also going to learn about several of the best known signs of alcoholism from a less general and more detailed viewpoint.
Not all of these alcoholism signs will unquestionably reveal that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcohol dependent individual, but the more signs that a drinker exhibits, the more likely it is that he or she is an individual who is alcohol dependent.”
Miss Benning then explained to the class that each individual would be responsible for studying two alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her findings to the rest of the class via a twenty minute oral presentation.
The Pupils are Wound Up About Giving A Detailed Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About The Signs of Alcoholism
After learning about the various signs of alcohol addiction for several days, the time had finally come for the student presentations. It was immediately apparent that her students were enthused about the topic because the information that they presented was excellent. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the fervor exhibited by the pupils in her classroom regarding this topic was an understatement.
The day after all of the students completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a sheet of paper with a list of all the alcohol dependency signs that were discussed and presented in the presentations and in class. Miss Benning then asked the students in her class to study the list and rank the top five alcohol dependency signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After roughly fifteen minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and informed her pupils that after she reviews the results, she will discuss her findings the next school day.
There was a real buzz by the pupils while they were exiting Miss Benning’s classroom. 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 Match Their Answers Against the Evaluations From A Council of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Authorities
When the next school day arrived, Miss Benning handed out a piece of paper that listed the top five alcohol addiction signs according to the students’ rankings. To the right of these results, she added another column that was labeled “experts’ response.” She then explained to her pupils that the numbers in the new column she added were the answers that were given by a group of alcohol addiction professionals.
Miss Benning asked the students in her class to go over the data on the piece of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any questions, issues, or concerns. Within 20 or 30 seconds, almost everyone in the class raised his or her hand. It was noticeable that the students had some questions, concerns, or issues about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. For instance, virtually every person in the classroom had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the experts, that is to say, “Do you feel really ill when you refrain from drinking?”
The Central Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Dependency is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Dependency and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the students in her class why this answer was the most correct sign of alcoholism. She pointed out the fact that the principal difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.
Primarily this means that when an alcoholic abruptly stops drinking, he or she will experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then explained to the pupils in her classroom that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the brain and by the body to the deficit of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated another way, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the brain and from the body telling an individual who is addicted to alcohol that something is dreadfully out of kilter and needs to be fixed. These signals consist of several painful, dangerous, and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that can possibly lead to a person’s death if the proper therapy is not immediately obtained.
Miss Benning then went over the many different alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when an alcohol addicted person suddenly quits drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to underline was this: a person 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 sign or symptom that few, if any, alcohol abusers ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To articulate this as overtly as possible, Miss Benning pointed out that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted people, are not alcohol dependent and consequently, when they quit drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Pupils Feel They Have Found A Contradiction With the Findings From The Group of Alcoholism Experts
The pupils also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the alcoholism specialists, namely, “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 explained to the students in her classroom that this sign does not inevitably denote that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does highlight the need that alcoholics have to drink in order to steer clear of alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the importance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the individual who is addicted to alcohol, the pupils started to understand the key difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.
To add a sense of closure to the subject, Miss Benning asked her pupils to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is alcohol dependent knew about every one of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcoholism signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would get alcohol treatment?”
After approximately two or three minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ responses. While many students believed that approximately 70 to 80 percent of individuals who are addicted to alcohol would get alcohol rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol dependency signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students reasoned that this number would not be less than 65 percent.
The Pupils Were Shocked to Learn That Only 25% of Alcohol Dependent Individuals in the United States Seek Alcohol Dependency Treatment
To the astonishment of most of the students, Miss Benning stated that according to different scientific investigations, only 25% of the individuals who are alcohol dependent in the U.S. ask for alcohol addiction treatment. This surprised most of the pupils because they believed that exposure to the awful statistics and facts linked to alcohol addiction would motivate most of the people who are alcohol dependent to seek alcohol dependency rehab.
Miss Benning then explained that people who are addicted to alcohol not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also need alcohol everyday so they can steer clear of possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Apparently, the alcohol addicted person’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than logic or facts. Without a doubt, since the need for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol dependent person, this is hard to counteract.
A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the excitement exhibited by the students when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning realized that she had inspired and encouraged the pupils in her classroom to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our culture.
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Tags: alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, alcohol dependency, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, alcoholism, alcoholism facts, alcoholism signs, kids and teens, self improvement, signs of alcoholism, teen alcohol abuse
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