The Importance Of Alcohol Treatment And How Mental Health Problems And Alcoholism Often Lead To Communication And Commitment Issues In Relationships And Friendships
Miss Benning was a health teacher at the most popular co-educational high school in the county. Even though she had been teaching for only two or three years, she had already acquired a reputation as a person with teaching methods that stimulated and inspired students to think and to learn.
As an illustration, one Wednesday morning at 9:00 she addressed the pupils in her classroom and stated the following: “For the next four or five days we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more broad-based viewpoint and we are also going to learn about a number of the most typical signs of alcoholism from a less general and more explicit viewpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will absolutely establish that someone with a drinking problem is a person who is addicted to alcohol, 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 informed the the students that each person would be accountable for researching three alcoholism signs and then presenting his or her findings to the other class members via a ten minute oral presentation.
The Students are Wound Up About Giving A Detailed Presentation to Their Fellow Pupils About The Signs of Alcohol Dependency
After learning about the various signs of alcoholism for several days, the time had arrived for the oral presentations. It was at once apparent that the students were thrilled about the topic because the material that they presented was excellent. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the interest displayed by the students in her classroom regarding this subject matter 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 presented and discussed in class and in the presentations. Miss Benning then asked the students in her class to go over the list and rank the top five alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcoholism. After around fifteen minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and informed the pupils in her classroom that after she tallies the results, she will discuss her findings the next school day.
There was a real buzz 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 outcome of their in-class research.
The Pupils Contrast Their Numbers With the Findings From A Board of Chemical Dependency Authorities
When the next school day came, Miss Benning handed out a piece of paper that listed the top four alcohol addiction signs as per the pupils’ rankings. To the left of these results, she included another column that was labeled “experts’ answer.” She then informed the pupils in her class that the numbers in the additional column she added represented the conclusions that were given by a group of alcoholism experts.
Miss Benning asked the students in her class to go over the information on the sheet of paper she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any issues, questions, or concerns. Within 40 or 50 seconds, almost everyone in the class raised her or his hand. It was evident that the students had some questions, issues, or concerns about their results versus the answers given by the experts. As an illustration, virtually every person in the classroom disagreed with the highest ranked answer given by the specialists, to be precise, “Do you feel awfully nauseous when you abstain from drinking?”
The Central Difference Between Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcohol Addiction and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the students in her class why this answer was the most precise sign of alcohol dependency. She stressed the fact that the key difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcoholism and not with alcohol abuse.
Fundamentally this means that when an individual who is alcohol dependent suddenly stops drinking, he or she will suffer through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then told her students that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the brain and by the body to the deprivation of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated another way, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the brain and from the body telling an alcohol dependent individual that something is exceedingly wrong and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of several uncomfortable, painful, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can potentially result in a fatality if the proper therapy is not promptly 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 fact that Miss Benning tried to underline was this: an individual 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 symptom or sign that few, if any, individuals who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
To explain this as plainly as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the fact that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted individuals, are not alcohol dependent and as a result, when they quit drinking, they almost never experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Feel They Have Found An Incongruity With the Findings From The Council of Alcohol Dependency Experts
The students also had a problem with the second ranked answer given by the substance abuse specialists, to be precise, “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 students in her classroom that this sign does not necessarily indicate that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does underline the need that alcohol dependent people have to drink in order to keep away from alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the importance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is addicted to alcohol, the pupils started to appreciate the major difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.
To add a sense of closure to the topic, Miss Benning asked her students to take out a piece 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 dependency signs we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would ask for alcohol rehabilitation?”
After approximately four or five minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ responses. While many pupils thought that about 70 to 80 percent of alcohol addicted people would obtain alcoholism rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcoholism signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the students reasoned that this number would not be less than 50 percent.
The Students Were Astonished to Find Out That Only 25% of Alcohol Dependent Individuals in the United States Obtain Alcohol Addiction Treatment
To the surprise of most of the pupils, Miss Benning stated that according to different scientific studies, only 25% of the people who are addicted to alcohol in the U.S. ask for alcohol rehabilitation. This astonished most of the students because they reasoned that first-hand knowledge of the gruesome statistics and facts correlated with alcoholism would motivate most of the individuals who are alcohol dependent to get alcohol addiction treatment.
Miss Benning then stated that alcohol dependent individuals not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also need alcohol everyday so they can avert possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Clearly, the alcoholic’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than facts or logic. Indeed, because the desire for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol addicted person, this is a thorny issue that is hard to reverse.
The Combination of Mental Health Problems and Alcoholism Commonly Leads to Commitment and Communication Difficulties in Relationships and Friendships
Finally, Miss Benning explained to students that it is important to understand that alcohol addiction and various mental health issues like depression are highly correlated. Additionally, the combination of mental health difficulties and alcohol addiction often lead to commitment and communication difficulties in friendships and relationships.
The Pupils are Motivated to Learn About Alcoholism Symptoms and Signs in Today’s Society
A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating the end of the class. Based on the excitement displayed by the pupils when they were leaving the room, Miss Benning knew that she had encouraged and inspired her pupils to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our culture.
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