A Health Teacher at the Best Known Co-ed High School in the Region Teaches Her Students About the Relevance of Alcohol Addiction Signs
Miss Benning was a health teacher at the largest private high school in the district. Even though she had been teaching for only four years, she had a...
Miss Benning was a health teacher at the largest private high school in the district. Even though she had been teaching for only four years, she had already secured a reputation as a teacher with educational methods that motivated and stimulated the students in her class to learn and to think.
For example, one Friday morning she addressed her pupils and announced the following: “For the next two weeks we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a general perspective and we are also going to learn about some of the most typical signs of alcoholism from a less general and more detailed viewpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will categorically establish that a drinker with a drinking problem is an individual who is addicted to alcohol, but the more signs that a person displays, the stronger the possibility that he or she is an individual who is alcohol dependent.”
Miss Benning then told the members of the class that each individual would be accountable for investigating two alcohol addiction signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the other class members via a five minute oral presentation.
The Students are Wound Up About Giving A Relatively Long Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About Alcohol Dependency Signs
After learning about the different signs of alcohol dependency for several days, the time had finally arrived for the student presentations. It was instantly clear to see that her students were excited about the subject matter because the material that they presented was superb. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm exhibited by her students concerning 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 addiction signs that were presented and discussed in the presentations and in class. Miss Benning then asked the students in her classroom to go over the list and rank the top six alcohol dependency signs that were most indicative of alcohol addiction. After roughly five minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and informed the students in her class that after she examines the numbers, she will reveal her findings the next school day.
There was some real excitement by the pupils while they were exiting Miss Benning’s classroom. One could swear that her pupils couldn’t wait for the next day to arrive so that they could learn about the results of their in-class research.
The Pupils Contrast Their Answers With the Findings From A Council of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Authorities
When the next school day finally arrived, Miss Benning gave out a sheet of paper that listed the top four alcohol addiction signs according to the students’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ response.” She then told her pupils that the numbers in the second column she added signified the responses that were constructed by a council of chemical dependency specialists.
Miss Benning asked her students to go over the data on the sheet of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any questions, concerns, or issues. Within 40 or 50 seconds, just about everyone in the classroom raised her or his hand. It was noticeable that the students had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. As an illustration, almost every pupil disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the authorities, specifically, “Do you feel extremely sick when you stop drinking?”
The Basic Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is the Physical Addiction 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 alcohol addiction. She highlighted the fact that the key difference between alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.
Essentially this means that when an individual who is addicted to alcohol suddenly quits drinking, he or she will experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then told the students in her class 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 explicitly, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the brain and from the body telling an alcohol dependent individual that something is dreadfully out of kilter and needs to be rectified. These messages consist of a number of uncomfortable, dangerous, and painful withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in a fatality if the appropriate treatment is not immediately undertaken.
Miss Benning then listed the many different alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when a person who is addicted to alcohol suddenly quits drinking.
The point that Miss Benning tried to stress was this: an alcohol abuser 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, people who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To explain this as exactly as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the point that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted people, are not alcohol dependent and as a consequence, when they stop drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Believe They Have Found An Irregularity With the Findings From The Council of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Professionals
The students also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the alcohol addiction experts, that is, “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 her students that this sign does not necessarily suggest that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does stress the need that alcohol addicted people have to drink in order to keep away from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the alcohol dependent individual, the students started to comprehend the fundamental difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.
To add a sense of closure to the subject matter, Miss Benning asked her pupils 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 alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would seek alcohol rehabilitation?”
After roughly two or three minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ predictions. While many students believed that approximately 75 to 85 percent of people who are alcohol dependent would seek alcohol addiction treatment if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol addiction signs, most of the students thought that this number would not be less than 55 percent.
The Students Were Surprised to Learn That Only 25% of Alcohol Addicted People in the United States Obtain Alcohol Treatment
To the amazement of most of the pupils, Miss Benning stated that according to different scientific studies, only 25% of the alcohol addicted people in the U.S. obtain alcohol dependency rehabilitation. This amazed most of the students because they believed that first hand experience of the gruesome statistics and facts related to alcohol addiction would motivate most of the alcohol dependent individuals to obtain alcoholism treatment.
Miss Benning then stated that alcohol addicted people not only need alcohol on a daily basis in order to function but they also require alcohol on a daily basis so they can steer clear of possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Evidently, the alcohol addicted individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than facts or logic. Undeniably, due to the fact that the desire for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol dependent person, this is a challenging issue that is hard to reverse.
A few minutes later the bell rang, signifying the end of the class. Based on the enthusiasm exhibited by the students when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning realized that she had motivated and stimulated the students in her classroom to stop and think about a significant health and social problem that exists in our country.