Dante was a fifteen year old high school sophomore who was exhibiting numerous alcohol-related problems at school. For that reason, the principal told him that he had to see Miss Johnson, the school therapist, before he would be allowed to come back to class.

Later that afternoon when Dante went home after school, he had to explain his school suspension to his Mom and Dad. His Mother and Father were “relatively conventional” and informed Dante that getting discharged from school was not a workable educational plan of action. They told Dante that failing to graduate from high school would probably be like a lead weight around his ankles that could quite possibly impair his educational attainment for the remainder of his life. Not only this, but Dante’s parents were very let down that he was drinking in the first place and drinking with his buddies in the second.

His parents explained to Dante that even though he may be young, he has to comprehend fairly swiftly that drinking is the path to failure, financial problems, ill health, and pain.

It was obvious that his parents were absolutely in concurrence with Dante’s principal and told Dante that he had better make plans to see Miss Johnson, the school psychologist. After his dialogue with his Mom and Dad, Dante at last agreed to see Miss Johnson the next school day. So Dante called the school and made an appointment to see Miss Johnson the next day during his first period class.

The Counselor Asks Dante if He Understands Why His Recent Alcohol-Related Activities Signaled Such Alarm By the School Administrators

When Dante got to his scheduled appointment with Miss Johnson, she immediately reviewed all of the alcohol-related difficulties Dante had gotten into and asked him if he comprehended why his recent alcohol-related actions caused quite a bit of anxiety by the school administrators.

Quite honestly, Dante was not sure why the principal told him he had to see a school therapist. As he expressed to Miss Johnson, why should he see a professional therapist about his drinking behavior? In view of the fact that almost all of his buddies drink as much if not more than he does, basically, drinking is no big thing. Stated differently, if almost everybody is drinking, why is this such a major concern?

Miss Johnson asked Dante when he started to drink alcoholic beverages. He said that some of his older friends introduced him to drinking wine coolers when he was twelve or thirteen years old and getting ready to enter junior high school.

Miss Johnson told Dante that while his peers may indeed drink more than he does and that they may be an unhealthy influence on him, the facts are that he is the one who is getting removed from school due to alcohol-related absenteeism, fighting, and delinquency, not his peers. Moreover, Miss Johnson also stressed the fact that Dante, and not his pals, is the one who is failing and who is missing at least one day of school per week due to his alcohol related difficulties. Finally, Miss Johnson stressed the fact that due to his drinking behavior, Dante is getting into a destructive cycle of alcohol abuse that can in the long run wreck his dreams, hopes, and aspirations.

In a word, Dante’s involvement with teenage alcohol abuse was beginning to short-circuit his ability to act like an accountable young man. As stated by Miss Johnson, “Just because most of your buddies drink wine coolers, hard liquor, wine, or beer does not mean that it is the right thing to do for you.”

Dante Learns That Eventually He Must Claim Responsibility For Himself In Order to Keep Away From Destructive, Unhealthy, Dangerous, and Damaging Circumstances In the Future

Miss Johnson informed Dante that one’s friends can certainly influence an individual in a negative way, but that the individual himself or herself has to in due course be accountable for himself or herself in order to steer clear of destructive, damaging, dangerous, and unhealthy consequences in the future.

Fortunately, Miss Johnson was very organized for her scheduled meeting with Dante. She showed him reports and research studies she had underlined that outlined various drinking facts and statistics that targeted most people in general. Then she showed Dante quite a bit of figures and reports that applied chiefly to teens.

For example, Miss Johnson explained the difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency and informed Dante that individuals who continue to drink in a hazardous manner frequently become alcohol dependent.

Miss Johnson also went over the concept of binge drinking that she defined as follows: drinking five or more drinks in one sitting for males and consuming four or more drinks in one sitting for females.

The Counselor Lists A Number Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse Facts and Statistics

Then Miss Johnson verbalized various alcohol facts and the following eight alcohol abuse statistics:

1. The 25.9% of adolescent drinkers in the U.S. who are alcohol abusers and alcohol dependent drink 47.3% of the alcohol that is ingested by all teenage drinkers.

2. Fifty percent of U.S. homicides are related to alcohol.

3. In 2002, U.S. alcoholism statistics and facts demonstrated that 2.6 million binge drinkers were between the ages of 12 and 17.

4. It is projected that more than 3 million adolescents in the U.S. between the ages of 14 to 17 are problem drinkers.

5. In the U.S., more than forty percent of those who start drinking at the age 14 or younger become addicted to alcohol.

6. Very few of the more than 18 million U.S. alcohol abusers receive the alcohol treatment they require.

7. Adolescent drinking costs Americans nearly $53 billion per year. If this cost were shared equally by each congressional district, the amount would total more than $120 million per district.

8. Alcohol-related difficulties are unevenly found among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders.

Dante Gets A Meaningful Jolt of Reality About the Long Term and the Short Term Consequences of Teenage Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

After Miss Johnson presented the aforementioned alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse facts and statistics, it was apparent that what Miss Johnson made known to Dante was a real jolt to him. Why? Because for the first time in his young life, someone not only took the time to articulate the short term and the long term outcomes of alcoholism and alcohol abuse, but she also made the effort to demonstrate what she was saying with alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency statistics and facts that related to everyone, and principally to young people.

Without a doubt, it was almost as if a light went on and Dante at once realized why he should not be engaging in hazardous and abusive drinking with or without his classmates any longer. Dante thanked Miss Johnson for her concern and for the information she discussed.

Miss Johnson then asked Dante how he felt about getting a physical exam and an alcohol appraisal for the alcohol treatment he would probably need. Dante thought about this for a minute and then agreed to get a complete physical and to go through an extensive evaluation of his drinking behavior so that he could start an alcohol treatment program promptly. After meeting with Miss Johnson, not only did he think that he had established an enhanced relationship with her, but it was also apparent that Dante’s self esteem and personal happiness had been boosted as he began to address his excessive and abusive drinking.

Miss Benning was a health teacher at the most financially challenged co-educational high school in the district. Although she had been teaching for only five years, she had already established a reputation as a teacher with a teaching approach that motivated and encouraged her students to think and to learn.

For example, one Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 she addressed the pupils in her classroom and said the following: “For the next three or four 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 several of the most highly researched signs of alcoholism from a less general and explicit standpoint.

Not all of these alcoholism signs will positively prove that a drinker with a drinking problem is an alcoholic, but the more signs that a person exhibits, the greater the probability that he or she is a person who is alcohol dependent.”

Miss Benning then informed the students in the class that each individual would be accountable for examining three alcohol addiction signs and then presenting his or her results to the other members in the class via a ten minute oral presentation.

The Students are Enthused About Giving A Broad-Based Presentation to Their Fellow Students About Alcohol Addiction Signs

After learning about the different signs of alcoholism for a number of days, the time had come for the oral presentations. It was instantaneously evident that the students were enthused about the subject matter because the information that they presented was superb. To say that Miss Benning was pleasantly surprised with the fervor manifested by the pupils in her classroom concerning this topic 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 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 nine alcohol addiction signs that were most indicative of alcohol dependency. After roughly twenty minutes, Miss Benning collected the sheets of paper and told the students in her classroom that after she analyzes the results, she will present her findings the next school day.

There was some real anticipation by the pupils while they were exiting Miss Benning’s class. One could swear that her students couldn’t wait for the next day to arrive so that they could learn about the results of their in-class research.

The Pupils Contrast Their Numbers With the Assessments From A Team of Chemical Dependency Specialists

When the next school day came, Miss Benning handed out a piece of paper that listed the top four alcohol addiction signs according to the students’ rankings. Next to these results, she included another column that was labeled “correct response.” She then informed her pupils that the numbers in the additional column she added stood for the answers that were given by a council of substance abuse authorities.

Miss Benning told her students to look over the information she handed out and then to raise their hand if they had any concerns, questions, or issues. Within 10 or 20 seconds, almost every pupil in the classroom raised his or her hand. It was evident that the students had some concerns, questions, or issues about their results versus the answers given by the professionals. For example, just about every person in the class had an issue with the highest ranked answer given by the specialists, to be precise, “Do you feel unusually nauseous when you abstain from drinking?”

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

Miss Benning then explained to the students in her class why this answer was the most accurate sign of alcohol addiction. She pointed out the fact that the central difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction is the physical addiction that is experienced with alcohol dependency and not with alcohol abuse.

Basically this means that when an individual who is alcohol dependent abruptly stops drinking, he or she will suffer through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Miss Benning then explained to the pupils in her class that alcohol withdrawal symptoms are responses by the body and by the brain to the deprivation of alcohol to which they had become accustomed. Stated more precisely, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are signals from the brain and from the body telling a person who is alcohol dependent that something is terribly out of kilter and needs to be fixed. These signals consist of several uncomfortable, painful, and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that can potentially lead to a fatality if the appropriate therapy is not promptly obtained.

Miss Benning then discussed the many different alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can be experienced when a person who is alcohol dependent abruptly stops drinking.

The fact that Miss Benning tried to underscore was this: a person 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, alcohol abusers ever experience is alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

To explain this as precisely as possible, Miss Benning emphasized the point that alcohol abusers, unlike people who are addicted to alcohol, are not alcohol dependent and as a consequence, when they stop drinking, they almost never go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The Students Think They Have Found An Inconsistency With the Findings From The Group of Alcohol Addiction Specialists

The pupils also disagreed with the second ranked answer given by the alcohol dependency professionals, 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 informed the pupils in her classroom that this sign does not inevitably mean that the problem is alcoholism, but that it does point to the need that alcohol addicted individuals have to drink in order to avert alcohol withdrawals.

After Miss Benning explained the relevance of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the life of the person who is alcohol dependent, the pupils started to grasp the basic difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency.

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 individual who is alcohol dependent knew about every one of the alcohol addiction signs and alcohol withdrawal symptoms we have studied, what percentage of them do you think would ask for alcohol addiction rehabilitation?”

After approximately two or three minutes, Miss Benning asked for the pupils’ predictions. While many pupils believed that approximately 85 to 95 percent of individuals who are addicted to alcohol would seek alcohol addiction rehab if they knew about the facts related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms and alcoholism signs, most of the students thought that this number would not be less than 65 percent.

The Students Were Astonished to Discover That Only 25% of Alcohol Addicted Individuals in the U.S. Obtain Alcohol Rehab

To the amazement of most of the students, Miss Benning acknowledged that according to various scientific investigations, only 25% of the people who are alcohol dependent in the United States obtain alcohol dependency rehab. This shocked most of the pupils because they reasoned that first-hand knowledge of the disgusting statistics and facts correlated with alcoholism would motivate the majority of the individuals who are addicted to alcohol to obtain alcohol dependency treatment.

Miss Benning then explained that alcohol addicted people not only need alcohol everyday in order to function but they also require alcohol on an everyday basis so they can stay away from possible alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Obviously, the alcohol addicted person’s need to drink on a daily basis is stronger than facts or logic. To be sure, since the thirst for alcohol is “reality” to the alcohol dependent individual, this is a challenging issue that is hard to change.

A few minutes later the bell rang, indicating 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 encouraged and inspired her pupils to stop and think about a critical health and social problem that exists in our country.