Miss Benning was a health instructor at the largest co-educational high school in the local community. Even though she had been teaching for only four years, she had already secured a reputation as a teacher with educational methods that encouraged and stimulated her students to learn and to think.
As an illustration, one Friday morning at 8:00 she addressed the pupils in her classroom and articulated the following: “For the next two weeks we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wind-ranging perspective and we are also going to learn about a number of the most familiar signs of alcoholism from a less general and more detailed viewpoint."
"Not all of these alcoholism signs will beyond doubt reveal that an individual with a drinking problem is an alcoholic, but the more signs that a drinker exhibits, the stronger the possibility that he or she is an individual who is alcohol dependent.”
Miss Benning then told the students in the class that each student would be held responsible for studying four alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the other class members via a nine minute oral presentation.
The Students are Wound Up About Giving A Thorough Presentation to Their Fellow Students About Alcoholism Signs
After learning about the different alcohol dependency signs for a number of days, the time had finally come for the individual presentations. It was immediately evident that her students were enthused about the subject because the material that they presented was first-rate. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the fervor displayed by the pupils in her classroom regarding this subject 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 discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked the students in her classroom to study the list and rank the top ten alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcohol addiction. After around fifteen minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and told her students that after she tallies the results, she will reveal her findings the next school day.
There was some real anticipation by the students while they were exiting Miss Benning’s classroom. One could swear that her pupils couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could find out the outcome of their in-class research.
The Pupils Compare Their Numbers With the Assessments From A Group of Alcoholism Professionals
When the next school day finally arrived, Miss Benning handed out a piece of paper that listed the top three alcoholism signs according to the students' rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ answer.” She then told her pupils that the numbers in the second column she added signified the answers that were stated publicly by a panel of alcohol addiction authorities.
Miss Benning told her pupils to go over the information on the sheet of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any concerns, questions, or issues. Within 40 or 50 seconds, almost every student in the class raised her or his hand. It was apparent that the students had some concerns, questions, or issues about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. For instance, virtually every individual in the class disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the professionals, to be precise, “Do you feel awfully sick when you quit drinking?”
The Foremost Difference Between Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcoholism and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then informed the students in her classroom why this answer was the most clear-cut indicator of alcohol dependency. She underscored the fact that the central difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.
In essence this means that when an alcohol addicted person abruptly quits 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 brain and by the body to the deficit of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated more precisely, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an alcohol addicted individual that something is extremely wrong and needs to be rectified. These signals consist of several uncomfortable, painful, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in an individual's death if the proper therapy is not immediately received.
Miss Benning then went over the many different alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when a person who is addicted to alcohol suddenly stops drinking.
The fact that Miss Benning tried to underscore was this: a person who engages in alcohol abuse can experience almost any and every one of the alcoholism 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 state this as precisely as possible, Miss Benning underscored the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted individuals, are not alcohol dependent and accordingly, when they stop drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Think They Have Discovered An Incongruity With the Findings From The Board of Alcohol Addiction Professionals
The students also had a problem with the second ranked answer given by the alcohol addiction 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 students in her classroom that this sign does not inevitably signify that the problem is alcoholism, but that it does stress the need that alcohol addicted individuals have to drink in order to steer clear of alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the alcohol addicted person, the students started to comprehend the essential difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
To add a sense of closure to the subject matter, Miss Benning asked the pupils in her class to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every person 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 treatment?”
After roughly three or four minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ predictions. While many students thought that about 80 to 90 percent of people who are alcohol dependent would get alcohol dependency rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students figured that this number would not be less than 70 percent.
The Students Were Shocked to Learn That Only 25% of Individuals Who are Addicted to Alcohol in the U.S. Ask For Alcohol Addiction Rehab
To the surprise of most of the pupils, Miss Benning confirmed that according to different scientific examinations, only 25% of the individuals who are addicted to alcohol in the United States get alcohol addiction rehabilitation. This amazed most of the students because they reasoned that exposure to the gruesome statistics and facts linked to alcoholism would motivate most of the alcohol dependent people to get alcohol rehabilitation.
Miss Benning then stated that people who are addicted to alcohol not only need alcohol on a daily basis in order to function but they also need alcohol on an everyday basis so they can avert possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Obviously, the alcohol dependent individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than logic or facts. Certainly, because the thirst for alcohol is “reality” to the alcoholic, this is a thorny issue that is hard to undo.
A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating the end of the class. Based on the enthusiasm displayed by the pupils when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning recognized that she had stimulated and encouraged her pupils to stop and think about a significant health and social problem that exists in our society.
