Miss Benning was a health instructor at the most underfinanced private high school in the state. Although she had been teaching for only two years, she had already acquired a reputation as an instructor with instructional techniques that motivated and inspired students to think and to learn.
For example, one Tuesday morning she addressed her students and articulated the following: “For the next three or four 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 several of the most typical signs of alcoholism from a more specific point of view.
Not all of these alcoholism signs will without doubt substantiate that an individual with a drinking problem is an individual who is addicted to alcohol, but the more signs that a drinker exhibits, the greater the possibility that he or she is a person who is alcohol dependent.”
Miss Benning then told the students in the class that each student would be held responsible for examining two alcohol dependence signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the rest of the class via a thirty minute oral presentation.
The Students are Wound Up About Giving A Thorough Presentation to Their Fellow Students About The Signs of Alcohol Addiction
After learning about the different signs of alcohol addiction for several days, the time had finally come for the individual presentations. It was instantly evident that the students in her class were wound up about the subject matter because the material that they presented was superb. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the eagerness manifested by the students 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 alcoholism signs that were discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked the students in her class to study the list and rank the top six alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcohol addiction. After around ten minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and informed the students in her class that after she tallies the results, she will reveal her findings the next school day.
There was some real excitement by the students while they were leaving Miss Benning’s classroom. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could find out the results of their in-class research.
The Students Match Their Numbers Against the Evaluations From A Team of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Specialists
When the next school day arrived, Miss Benning passed out a sheet of paper that listed the top five alcohol dependency signs as per the students’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ response.” She then explained to her students that the numbers in the extra column she added were the findings that were stated by a group of alcoholism specialists.
Miss Benning asked 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 questions, concerns, or issues. Within 30 or 40 seconds, just about everyone in the classroom raised his or her hand. It was obvious that the pupils had some issues, concerns, or questions about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. For instance, just about every person in the classroom had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the authorities, to be precise, “Do you feel really sick when you stop drinking?”
The Essential Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then explained to the students in her classroom why this answer was the most correct indicator of alcohol addiction. She pointed out that the principal difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcoholism and not with alcohol abuse.
Primarily this means that when a person who is addicted to alcohol suddenly stops 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 lack of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated more explicitly, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an alcohol addicted individual that something is exceedingly wrong and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of several dangerous, painful, and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that can potentially lead to a fatality if the appropriate therapy is not promptly undertaken.
Miss Benning then went over the multitude of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an alcohol dependent individual abruptly 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 dependency signs that the students had ranked, but the one sign or symptom that few, if any, individuals who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To state this as overtly as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the point that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol dependent people, are not alcohol dependent and as a result, when they quit drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Pupils Feel They Have Discovered A Deviation With the Findings From The Board of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Experts
The pupils also had a problem with the second ranked answer given by the alcoholism experts, to be precise, “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 told the students in her classroom that this sign does not necessarily indicate that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does point to the need that individuals who are addicted to alcohol have to drink in order to avert alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the individual who is alcohol dependent, the pupils started to comprehend the main difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.
To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked the pupils in her class to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every individual 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 ask for alcohol dependency rehabilitation?”
After about one or two minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ responses. While many pupils reasoned that about 70 to 80 percent of alcohol addicted people would ask for alcohol rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students thought that this number would not be less than 60 percent.
The Pupils Were Amazed to Find Out That Only 25% of People Who are Alcohol Dependent in the United States Obtain Alcohol Addiction Rehabilitation
To the amazement of most of the students, Miss Benning acknowledged that according to various scientific investigations, only 25% of the people who are addicted to alcohol in the United States get alcohol dependency rehabilitation. This astonished most of the students because they believed that exposure to the awful facts and statistics associated with alcohol addiction would motivate most of the alcohol addicted individuals to ask for alcohol addiction rehab.
Miss Benning then stated that individuals who are addicted to alcohol not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also require alcohol on an everyday basis so they can avoid possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Evidently, the alcohol dependent person’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than logic or facts. Without a doubt, since the desire for alcohol is “reality” to the person who is addicted to alcohol, this is very hard to reverse.
A few minutes later the bell rang, signifying the end of the class. Based on the enthusiasm manifested by the pupils when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning knew that she had stimulated and motivated the pupils in her classroom to stop and think about a vital health and social problem that exists in our society.