A Health Teacher in the Most Underfinanced Private High School in the State Instructs Her Pupils About the Relevance of Alcoholism Signs
Writing by forestthornbarg on Tuesday, 27 of October , 2009 at 8:37 am
Miss Benning was a health instructor at the best known co-educational high school in the region. Even though she had been teaching for only two or three years, she had already secured a reputation as an instructor with teaching methods that inspired and encouraged the pupils in her class to learn and to think.
As an illustration, one Wednesday morning at 10:30 she addressed the students in her classroom and announced the following: “For the next few days we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more broad-based standpoint and we are also going to learn about a number of the most typical signs of alcoholism from a more detailed viewpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will definitely validate that an individual with a drinking problem is a person 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 addicted to alcohol.”
Miss Benning then told the class members that each student would be responsible for researching three alcohol dependence signs and then presenting his or her findings to the class via a five minute oral presentation.
The Students are Excited About Giving A Relatively Long Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About Alcohol Dependency Signs
After learning about the various signs of alcoholism for quite a few days, the time had come for the individual presentations. It was immediately evident that the students in her class were keyed up about the subject because the material that they presented was first class. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the passion manifested by the pupils in her class regarding this subject could not be overstated.
The day after all of the students completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a piece 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 her pupils to study the list and rank the top ten alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcoholism. After around fifteen minutes, Miss Benning collected the pieces of paper and told the pupils in her classroom that after she examines the results, she will reveal her findings the next school day.
There was a real buzz by the students while they were walking out of 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 Students Compare Their Results With the Evaluations From A Group of Alcoholism Experts
When the next school day arrived, Miss Benning gave out a sheet of paper that listed the top three alcohol dependency signs as per the students’ rankings. To the left of these results, she added another column that was labeled “experts’ response.” She then informed the pupils in her classroom that the numbers in the extra column she added were the findings that were stated publicly by a board of drug and alcohol abuse experts.
Miss Benning asked her students to look over the information she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any questions, concerns, or issues. Within a minute or two, just about everyone in the classroom raised his or her hand. It was noticeable that the students had some concerns, issues, or questions about their results versus the answers given by the experts. For instance, just about every person in the class had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the authorities, namely, “Do you feel extremely sick when you stop drinking?”
The Primary Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Addiction is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcoholism and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then informed the pupils in her class why this answer was the most correct sign of alcoholism. She highlighted the fact that the major difference between alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcoholism and not with alcohol abuse.
Basically this means that when a person who is alcohol dependent all of a sudden quits drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then informed her pupils 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 another way, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the brain and from the body telling a person who is alcohol dependent that something is extremely out of kilter and needs to be rectified. These messages consist of several uncomfortable, painful, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in an individual’s death if the appropriate therapy is not promptly received.
Miss Benning then listed the many diverse alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when an alcohol addicted person suddenly stops drinking.
The point that Miss Benning tried to emphasize 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, alcohol abusers ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To state this as clearly as possible, Miss Benning underscored the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike people who are alcohol dependent, are not alcohol dependent and as a consequence, when they quit drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Believe They Have Discovered An Abnormality With the Findings From The Council of Alcohol Addiction Authorities
The students also had an issue with the second ranked answer given by the drug and alcohol abuse experts, 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 informed the pupils in her classroom that this sign does not automatically indicate that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does emphasize the need that people who are addicted to alcohol have to drink in order to prevent alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the importance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is alcohol dependent, the pupils started to understand the essential difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.
To add a sense of closure to the subject, Miss Benning asked the pupils in her classroom 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 dependency signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would get alcohol dependency rehab?”
After roughly four or five minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ predictions. While many students thought that roughly 70 to 80 percent of alcohol dependent people would ask for alcohol dependency treatment 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 50 percent.
The Students Were Surprised to Discover That Only 25% of Alcoholics in the U.S. Get Alcohol Dependency Rehabilitation
To the surprise of most of the students, Miss Benning confirmed that according to the research literature, only 25% of the alcohol dependent individuals in the U.S. get alcohol dependency treatment. This astonished most of the pupils because they reasoned that first hand experience of the abysmal facts and statistics linked to alcoholism would motivate the majority of the alcohol dependent individuals to obtain alcoholism treatment.
Miss Benning then stated that alcoholics not only need alcohol on an everyday basis in order to function but they also require alcohol everyday so they can avert possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Obviously, the alcohol dependent individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than logic or facts. Without a doubt, since the need for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol addicted individual, this is a thorny issue that is hard to overcome.
A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the buzz manifested by the students when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning recognized that she had inspired and stimulated the students in her classroom to stop and think about a vital health and social problem that exists in our culture.
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