Miss Benning was a health instructor at the most popular co-ed high school in the district. Even though she had been teaching for only five years, she had already acquired a reputation as a person with teaching methods that encouraged and motivated her students to learn and to think.
For example, one Wednesday morning at 8:30 she addressed the pupils in her class and announced the following: “For the next two or three days we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wide-ranging standpoint and we are also going to learn about some of the most highly researched signs of alcoholism from a less general and explicit standpoint."
"Not all of these alcoholism signs will without doubt establish that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcohol addicted person, but the more signs that an individual exhibits, the greater the possibility that he or she is an alcohol addicted individual.”
Miss Benning then explained to the the students that each student would be responsible for researching three alcohol dependence signs and then presenting his or her results to the class via a twenty-five minute oral presentation.
The Pupils are Enthused About Giving A Relatively Long Presentation to Their Fellow Students About The Signs of Alcohol Addiction
After learning about the different alcoholism signs for several days, the time had arrived for the individual presentations. It was instantaneously evident that the pupils in her class were wound up about the subject matter because the information that they presented was excellent. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the passion displayed by the pupils in her classroom concerning this topic could not be overstated.
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 presented and discussed in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked her pupils to study the list and rank the top ten alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After approximately ten minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and told the pupils in her classroom that after she goes over the results, she will discuss her findings the next school day.
There was a real buzz by the students while they were leaving Miss Benning’s class. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could learn about the results of their in-class research.
The Pupils Match Their Answers Against the Appraisals From A Board of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Experts
When the next school day came, Miss Benning passed out a piece of paper that listed the top five alcohol dependency signs as per the pupils' rankings. To the left of these results, she included another column that was labeled “correct answer.” She then explained to the students in her class that the numbers in the extra column she added signified the responses that were given by a council of drug and alcohol abuse professionals.
Miss Benning told the students in her class to go over the information on the piece of paper she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any issues, questions, or concerns. Within 30 or 40 seconds, almost every student in the classroom raised his or her hand. It was noticeable that the pupils had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. As an illustration, virtually every individual in the classroom had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the experts, namely, “Do you feel really ill when you abstain from drinking?”
The Basic Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Dependency is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the students in her classroom why this answer was the most clear-cut sign of alcohol addiction. She pointed out the fact that the most important difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcoholism and not with alcohol abuse.
In essence this means that when an alcoholic suddenly stops drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then informed the pupils in her classroom that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the body and by the brain to the deficit of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated more forcefully, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an alcoholic that something is very misaligned and needs to be rectified. These signals consist of several uncomfortable, dangerous, and painful withdrawal symptoms that can possibly lead to an individual's death if the appropriate treatment is not immediately received.
Miss Benning then went over the multitude of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an alcohol addicted individual suddenly stops drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to underline 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 sign or symptom that few, if any, people who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To state this as precisely as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the fact 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 Students Believe They Have Found A Deviation With the Findings From The Council of Alcoholism Authorities
The students also had an issue with the second ranked answer given by the chemical dependency professionals, to be precise, “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 informed the pupils in her classroom that this sign does not automatically denote that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does highlight the need that people who are addicted to alcohol 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 alcohol addicted individual, the students started to comprehend the essential difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.
To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked her pupils to take out a piece of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is an alcoholic knew about every one of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcoholism signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would get alcoholism treatment?”
After about two or three minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ responses. While many students believed that approximately 70 to 80 percent of alcohol addicted people would ask for alcoholism rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol addiction signs, most of the students believed that this number would not be less than 50 percent.
The Students Were Surprised to Find Out That Only 25% of People Who are Addicted to Alcohol in the U.S. Obtain Alcohol Rehabilitation
To the amazement of most of the pupils, Miss Benning stated that according to different scientific studies, only 25% of the alcohol dependent individuals in the United States seek alcohol dependency rehab. This surprised most of the students because they believed that first hand experience of the alarming facts and statistics correlated with alcohol dependency would motivate the majority of the individuals who are addicted to alcohol to obtain alcohol dependency rehabilitation.
Miss Benning then explained that alcohol addicted individuals not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also require alcohol on a daily basis so they can stay away from possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Evidently, the alcohol addicted individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than facts or logic. Without a doubt, since the desire for alcohol is “reality” to the individual who is alcohol dependent, this is a thorny issue that is difficult to reverse.
A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating the end of the class. Based on the buzz exhibited by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning realized that she had stimulated and encouraged the pupils in her class to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our society.
