Miss Benning was a health teacher at the largest co-ed high school in the district. Although she had been teaching for only five years, she had already gained a reputation as an instructor with instructional approaches that motivated and stimulated her students to learn and to think.

As an illustration, one Monday afternoon at 1:00 she addressed the students in her class and articulated the following: “For the next two weeks we are going to learn about some basic alcoholism facts from a general standpoint and we are also going to learn about some of the most common signs of alcoholism from a less general and more specific viewpoint."

"Not all of these alcoholism signs will without doubt confirm that a drinker with a drinking problem is a person who is alcohol dependent, but the more signs that a person exhibits, the greater the likelihood that he or she is an individual who is alcohol dependent.”

Miss Benning then informed the members of the class that each person would be held responsible for studying four alcohol addiction signs and then presenting his or her conclusions to the other members in the class via a twenty minute oral presentation.

The Pupils are Keyed Up About Giving An Extensive Presentation to Their Fellow Pupils About Alcoholism Signs

After learning about the various alcohol addiction signs for a number of days, the time had finally arrived for the oral presentations. It was immediately evident that her pupils were keyed up about the topic because the material that they presented was first-rate. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the excitement manifested by the pupils in her classroom concerning this subject matter was an understatement.

The day after all of the pupils 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 the presentations and in class. Miss Benning then asked her students to study the list and rank the top seven alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcohol addiction. After around fifteen minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and told the students in her class that after she goes over the results, she will reveal her findings the next school day.

There was a real buzz by the pupils while they were walking out of Miss Benning’s class. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to come so that they could find out the results of their in-class research.

The Students Match Their Numbers Against the Evaluations From A Board of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Specialists

When the next school day came, Miss Benning handed out a sheet of paper that listed the top five alcoholism signs as per the students' rankings. To the right of these results, she included another column that was labeled “correct response.” She then informed the pupils in her classroom that the numbers in the extra column she added signified the answers that were articulated by a group of alcohol dependency professionals.

Miss Benning asked the pupils in her classroom to go over the information on the piece of paper she passed out and then to raise their hand if they had any questions, concerns, or issues. Within a minute or two, virtually everyone in the class raised her or his hand. It was apparent that the students had some concerns, questions, or issues about their results versus the answers given by the specialists. For instance, virtually every individual in the classroom had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the experts, specifically, “Do you feel really ill when you stop drinking?”

The Main Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Dependency is the Physical Addiction That is Experienced With Alcoholism and Not With Alcohol Abuse

Miss Benning then explained to her pupils why this answer was the most unambiguous indicator of alcohol addiction. She underscored the fact that the main difference between alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse is the physical dependency that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.

For all intents and purposes this means that when an individual who is addicted to alcohol suddenly quits drinking, he or she will go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Miss Benning then explained to the pupils in her class that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the brain and by the body to the deficiency of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated differently, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are messages from the body and from the brain telling an alcohol addicted individual that something is terribly wrong and needs to be fixed. These messages consist of a number of painful, dangerous, and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that can possibly result in an individual's death if the appropriate therapy is not promptly undertaken.

Miss Benning then discussed the host of alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be gone through when an alcohol addicted person suddenly quits drinking.

The fact that Miss Benning tried to emphasize was this: a person who engages in alcohol abuse can experience almost any and every one of the alcoholism signs that the students had ranked, but the one sign or symptom that few, if any, individuals who engage in alcohol abuse ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

To state this as precisely as possible, Miss Benning pointed out that alcohol abusers, unlike alcohol addicted individuals, are not alcohol dependent and consequently, when they quit drinking, they almost never suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The Pupils Think They Have Found A Dissimilarity With the Findings From The Board of Alcohol Addiction Specialists

The students also some difficulty with the second ranked answer given by the alcoholism professionals, 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 explained to her students that this sign does not necessarily imply that the problem is alcoholism, but that it does stress the need that individuals who are addicted to alcohol have to drink in order to keep away from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

After Miss Benning explained the importance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the individual who is addicted to alcohol, the pupils started to comprehend the major difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.

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 an alcoholic knew about every one of the alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would obtain alcohol addiction treatment?”

After roughly three or four minutes, Miss Benning asked for the students’ responses. While many students believed that around 85 to 95 percent of individuals who are alcohol dependent would obtain alcohol rehabilitation if they knew about the facts related to alcohol dependency signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, most of the pupils figured that this number would not be less than 70 percent.

The Pupils Were Amazed to Find Out That Only 25% of Alcohol Addicted Individuals in the United States Obtain Alcoholism Rehab

To the shock of most of the pupils, Miss Benning acknowledged that according to various scientific investigations, only 25% of the alcohol dependent individuals in the U.S. ask for alcohol addiction rehab. This amazed most of the students because they reasoned that first-hand knowledge of the overwhelming facts and statistics associated with alcohol dependency would motivate the majority of the alcohol addicted people to seek alcohol dependency treatment.

Miss Benning then explained that alcohol dependent individuals not only need alcohol on a daily basis in order to function but they also require alcohol on a daily basis so they can steer clear of possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Clearly, the alcohol addicted individual’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than facts or logic. Undeniably, because the craving for alcohol is “reality” to the alcoholic, this is very hard to reverse.

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 knew that she had motivated and stimulated the students in her class to stop and think about an important health and social problem that exists in our society.