The Relevance Of Alcohol Treatment And How Mental Health Difficulties And Alcohol Addiction Commonly Result In Problems With Loving Relationships And Friendships
Miss Benning was a health instructor at the best known co-educational high school in the county. Although she had been teaching for only two years, she had already achieved a reputation as a teacher with a teaching approach that inspired and encouraged students to learn and to think.
For example, one Wednesday morning she addressed her pupils and articulated the following: “For the next two weeks we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a more wide-ranging point of view and we are also going to learn about several of the most common signs of alcoholism from a less general and more specific standpoint.”
“Not all of these alcoholism signs will categorically reveal that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcohol addicted person, but the more signs that a person exhibits, the more likely it is that he or she is a person who is addicted to alcohol.”
Miss Benning then told the members in the class that each individual would be held responsible for examining four alcohol addiction signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the other class members via a fifteen minute oral presentation.
The Students are Enthused About Giving An Extensive Presentation to Their Fellow Classmates About The Signs of Alcohol Addiction
After learning about the various alcohol dependency signs for several days, the time had come for the student presentations. It was immediately apparent that the students were enthused about the topic because the information that they presented was excellent. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the excitement manifested by the students in her class concerning this topic could not be overstated.
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 dependency signs that were discussed and presented in the presentations and in class. Miss Benning then asked the students in her class to study the list and rank the top eight alcoholism signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After approximately twenty minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and informed her pupils that after she assesses the numbers, she will discuss her findings the next school day.
There was some real excitement by the pupils while they were leaving Miss Benning’s class. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could learn about the results of their in-class research.
The Students Contrast Their Answers With the Findings From A Panel of Alcohol Dependency Professionals
When the next school day finally arrived, Miss Benning gave 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’ answer.” She then told her students that the numbers in the additional column she added were the answers that were generated by a group of substance abuse professionals.
Miss Benning told the pupils in her class to look over the data on the sheet of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any issues, questions, or concerns. Within a minute or two, just about every student in the classroom raised his or her hand. It was evident that the students had some concerns, issues, or questions about their results versus the answers given by the authorities. For instance, just about every individual in the class had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the authorities, that is, “Do you feel unusually ill when you refrain from drinking?”
The Basic Difference Between Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse is the Physical Dependency That is Experienced With Alcoholism and Not With Alcohol Abuse
Miss Benning then told the students in her class why this answer was the most accurate indicator of alcohol addiction. She underscored the fact that the main difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.
Essentially this means that when an individual who is alcohol dependent all of a sudden stops drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Miss Benning then told her students that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the body and by the brain to the deficit of alcohol to which they had become acclimated. Stated more forcefully, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the brain and from the body telling an alcohol dependent individual that something is extremely out of kilter and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of a number of uncomfortable, dangerous, and painful withdrawal symptoms that can potentially result in a loss of life if the proper treatment is not promptly obtained.
Miss Benning then went over the host of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an individual who is addicted to alcohol abruptly 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 alcoholism 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 articulate this as plainly as possible, Miss Benning underscored the point that alcohol abusers, unlike people who are alcohol dependent, are not alcohol dependent and as a result, when they stop drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Students Believe They Have Uncovered An Irregularity With the Findings From The Board of Alcohol Addiction Professionals
The students also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the chemical dependency specialists, 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 automatically mean that the problem is alcohol addiction, but that it does underline the need that people who are alcohol dependent have to drink in order to avert alcohol withdrawals.
After Miss Benning explained the significance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the alcohol addicted person, the students started to understand the fundamental difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
To add a sense of closure to the subject matter, Miss Benning asked her students to take out a sheet of paper and answer the following question: “if every person who is addicted to alcohol knew about every one of the alcohol dependency signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would seek alcoholism treatment?”
After roughly four or five minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ predictions. While many students believed that around 70 to 80 percent of individuals who are addicted to alcohol would ask for alcohol addiction rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcohol addiction signs, most of the students believed that this number would not be less than 55 percent.
The Students Were Surprised to Learn That Only 25% of People Who are Addicted to Alcohol in the United States Seek Alcohol Dependency Rehab
To the amazement of most of the pupils, Miss Benning declared that according to different scientific investigations, only 25% of the people who are alcohol dependent in the U.S. obtain alcohol treatment. This surprised most of the students because they reasoned that first hand experience of the alarming statistics and facts linked to alcoholism would motivate most of the alcohol addicted people to seek alcoholism rehab.
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 steer clear of possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Evidently, the alcohol dependent person’s need to drink on a daily basis is more powerful than logic or facts. Certainly, because the craving for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol addicted individual, this is a demanding issue that is hard to reverse.
The Occurrence of Alcohol Addiction and Mental Health Problems Commonly Results in Problems in Loving Friendships and Relationships
Finally, Miss Benning explained to pupils that it is important to comprehend that alcoholism and diverse mental health difficulties such as depression are highly interlinked. Not only this but the occurrence of mental health issues and alcoholism regularly result in issues in loving relationships and friendships
The Pupils are Motivated to Learn About Alcoholism Signs and Symptoms in Today’s Society
A few minutes later the bell rang, meaning that the end of class had arrived. Based on the buzz exhibited by the students when they were leaving the classroom, Miss Benning realized that she had stimulated and encouraged the pupils in her classroom to stop and think about an essential health and social problem that exists in our culture.
Tags: alcoholism, love, relationships, self improvement
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