Miss Benning was a health instructor at the largest parochial high school in the region. Although she had been teaching for only three of four years, she had already secured a reputation as a person with teaching techniques that stimulated and encouraged pupils to learn and to think.
For example, one Thursday morning at 9:30 she addressed the pupils in her classroom and stated 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 familiar signs of alcoholism from a less general and more specific standpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will beyond doubt substantiate that an individual with a drinking problem is a person who is alcohol dependent, but the more signs that a person manifests, the greater the possibility that he or she is an alcohol addicted person.”
Miss Benning then told the members of the class that each individual would be responsible for investigating four alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her results to the other class members via a nine minute oral presentation.
The Students are Keyed Up About Giving A Thorough Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About The Signs of Alcohol Dependency
After learning about the different alcohol dependency signs for several days, the time had arrived for the oral presentations. It was immediately noticeable that the students were thrilled about the subject because the material that they presented was superb. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the fervor displayed by the students in her classroom regarding 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 discussed and presented in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked her students to go over the list and rank the top five alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcoholism. After around five minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and explained to her students that after she examines the numbers, she will present 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 arrive so that they could find out the outcome of their in-class research.
The Pupils Compare Their Answers With the Results From A Panel of Substance Abuse Authorities
When the next school day came, Miss Benning handed out a piece of paper that listed the top five alcohol dependency signs according to the students’ rankings. To the right of these results, she added another column that was labeled “correct answer.” She then explained to the pupils in her class that the numbers in the additional column she added stood for the responses that were articulated by a council of alcohol addiction professionals.
Miss Benning told her pupils to look over the information on the piece of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any questions, issues, or concerns. Within 40 or 50 seconds, just about everyone in the class raised her or his hand. It was apparent that the students had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the experts. For example, virtually every person in the class disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the professionals, that is to say, “Do you feel exceptionally ill when you refrain from drinking?”
The Chief Difference Between Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the pupils in her class why this answer was the most unambiguous sign of alcohol dependency. She underlined the fact that the most important difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcoholism and not with alcohol abuse.
In effect this means that when an alcohol addicted person suddenly quits drinking, he or she will suffer through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then informed the students in her classroom 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 another way, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the body and from the brain telling an alcohol dependent person that something is extremely incorrect and needs to be fixed. These signals consist of a number of uncomfortable, dangerous, and painful withdrawal symptoms that can potentially lead to a loss of life if the appropriate treatment is not immediately undertaken.
Miss Benning then listed the multitude of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an individual who is addicted to alcohol suddenly quits drinking.
The point that Miss Benning tried to underscore was this: an alcohol abuser 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, alcohol abusers ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To explain this as overtly as possible, Miss Benning stressed the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted individuals, are not alcohol dependent and as a consequence, when they quit drinking, they almost never go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Feel They Have Discovered A Dissimilarity With the Findings From The Council of Substance Abuse Authorities
The pupils also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the chemical dependency experts, to be exact, “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 explained to the students in her class that this sign does not automatically mean that the problem is alcohol dependency, but that it does stress the need that people who are alcohol dependent have to drink in order to avert alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
After Miss Benning explained the significance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is alcohol dependent, the pupils started to appreciate the fundamental 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 piece of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is addicted to alcohol knew about every one of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcoholism signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would obtain alcohol rehab?”
After roughly three or four minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ responses. While many students reasoned that roughly 80 to 90 percent of individuals who are alcohol dependent would get alcoholism treatment if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol dependency signs, most of the pupils figured that this number would not be less than 55 percent.
The Students Were Amazed to Discover That Only 25% of Alcohol Dependent Individuals in the U.S. Get Alcohol Dependency Treatment
To the shock of most of the students, Miss Benning proclaimed that according to various scientific studies, only 25% of the alcoholics in the U.S. ask for alcoholism rehabilitation. This shocked most of the students because they figured that first-hand knowledge of the deplorable facts and statistics linked to alcoholism would motivate most of the alcohol addicted individuals to ask for alcohol addiction rehab.
Miss Benning then explained that people who are alcohol dependent 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. Apparently, the alcohol dependent person’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than facts or logic. Certainly, because the need for alcohol is “reality” to the individual who is alcohol dependent, this is difficult to change.
A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the enthusiasm displayed by the pupils when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning realized that she had encouraged and inspired the pupils in her classroom to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our country.