A Health Teacher at the Most Financially Challenged Parochial High School in the Region Teaches Her Students About the Relevance of Alcoholism Signs

Posted on November 1, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized |

Miss Benning was a health teacher at the largest parochial high school in the county. Even though she had been teaching for only five years, she had already achieved a reputation as a teacher with a teaching approach that encouraged and stimulated students to think and to learn.

As an illustration, one Wednesday morning she addressed the pupils in her class and stated the following: “For the next week we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wind-ranging perspective and we are also going to learn about several of the most common signs of alcoholism from a less general and more specific point of view.”

“Not all of these alcoholism signs will definitely show that someone with a drinking problem is an individual who is alcohol dependent, but the more signs that a drinker displays, the more likely it is that he or she is an alcohol dependent individual.”

Miss Benning then explained to the the students that each individual would be accountable for studying four alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her results to the rest of the class via a twenty-five minute oral presentation.

The Pupils are Wound Up About Giving A Comprehensive Presentation to Their Fellow Pupils About Alcoholism Signs

After learning about the diverse alcoholism signs for a number of days, the time had come for the student presentations. It was instantaneously apparent that the students in her class were thrilled about the subject matter because the information that they presented was first class. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the fervor displayed by the pupils in her class regarding this subject matter was an understatement.

The day after all of the pupils completed their presentations, Miss Benning passed out a piece 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 pupils in her classroom to go over the list and rank the top ten alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After approximately twenty minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and explained to the students in her class that after she examines the results, she will present her findings the next school day.

There was some real excitement 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 Evaluations From A Panel of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Specialists

When the next school day came, Miss Benning gave out a piece of paper that listed the top five alcohol addiction signs according to the students’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “correct answer.” She then explained to the students in her classroom that the numbers in the additional column she added were the conclusions that were given by a team of alcohol dependency professionals.

Miss Benning asked the pupils in her class to look over the numbers and then to raise their hand if they had any issues, questions, or concerns. Within 30 or 40 seconds, almost every pupil in the class raised his or her hand. It was evident that the pupils had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the experts. For example, virtually every pupil disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the professionals, to be precise, “Do you feel awfully nauseous when you abstain from drinking?”

The Most Important Difference Between Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse

Miss Benning then explained to her students why this answer was the most precise sign of alcoholism. She underscored the fact that the central difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcohol addiction and not with alcohol abuse.

Essentially this means that when an alcohol dependent individual abruptly 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 brain and by the body to the lack of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated more explicitly, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the brain and from the body telling an alcoholic that something is extremely out of kilter and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of a number of painful, dangerous, and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in a fatality if the proper therapy is not promptly obtained.

Miss Benning then went over the host of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when a person who is alcohol dependent suddenly quits drinking.

The point that Miss Benning tried to emphasize was this: an individual who engages in alcohol abuse 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, individuals who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

To state this as exactly as possible, Miss Benning pointed out that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol dependent people, are not alcohol dependent and accordingly, when they quit drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The Students Think They Have Discovered An Irregularity With the Findings From The Group of Alcohol Dependency Experts

The students also had an issue with the second ranked answer given by the alcohol addiction experts, specifically, “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 told the pupils in her class that this sign does not inevitably imply that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does stress the need that individuals who are alcohol dependent have to drink in order to keep away from alcohol withdrawals.

After Miss Benning explained the significance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the alcohol dependent individual, the pupils started to appreciate the main difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked the students in her classroom to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every individual 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 obtain alcohol addiction treatment?”

After roughly one or two minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ answers. While many pupils reasoned that approximately 85 to 95 percent of alcohol addicted people would ask for alcohol addiction rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol dependency signs, most of the pupils believed that this number would not be less than 65 percent.

The Pupils Were Astonished to Learn That Only 25% of Individuals Who are Alcohol Dependent in the United States Ask For Alcoholism Rehab

To the amazement of most of the pupils, Miss Benning declared that according to various scientific examinations, only 25% of the alcoholics in the U.S. obtain alcohol dependency rehabilitation. This shocked most of the pupils because they figured that exposure to the dreadful facts and statistics correlated with alcohol addiction would motivate the majority of the people who are alcohol dependent to ask for alcohol dependency rehabilitation.

Miss Benning then explained that alcohol addicted people not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also need alcohol everyday so they can stay away from possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Evidently, the alcoholic’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than logic or facts. Indeed, because the need for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol dependent person, this is very hard to overcome.

A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the buzz exhibited by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning knew that she had inspired and encouraged the students in her classroom to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our society.

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