Jerry and Sarah have been married for five years. They wanted to have some fun and excitement before they made up their minds to have children and so they willfully developed a very dynamic social life.

The basic difficulty, it needs to be stressed, is that virtually everything they do to have fun includes drinking. For instance, all of the parties with friends, dinner engagements, happy hours, sporting events, and family get-togethers they patronize are related to drinking.

Jerry and Sarah Begin to Take Note of Some Instantly Recognizable Alcohol Related Issues That are Without a Doubt Related to Their Irresponsible Drinking

If they were moderate or responsible drinkers, this wouldn’t be such a major problem. Because they drink quite irresponsibly, nonetheless, they are starting to notice some clearly identifiable alcohol-related problems in their lives.

For example, just two weeks ago Jerry was arrested for his first DWI and has been ignoring responsibilities at work due to alcohol-related health problems. Moreover, Jerry’s last two or three performance reviews at the office have been less than creditable and he has begun to forget what he does or says when he drinks. Finally, Jerry has been experiencing sleep-related problems and his family is starting to exhibit anxiety about his drinking difficulties.

Similar to Jerry’s circumstances, Sarah has been feeling down in the dumps about life in general and to cope with this, she has been drinking more than any time in the past eight months. Moreover, Sarah has been getting a lot of headaches and suffering from painful hangovers after drinking. As a final point, Sarah has been feeling substantially less energetic when she awakens in the morning, she has been getting to work late at least once per week, and she has been getting some negative criticism from her family members, friends, coworkers, and relatives about her heavy drinking.

Watching the Television and Inadvertently Discovering An Attention-Grabbing Documentary About the Signs of Alcohol Addiction

One Friday evening while watching TV, Sarah and Jerry happened upon an interesting program about the signs of alcoholism.

This TV special was a real surprise to Jerry and Sarah because quite a few of the alcoholism signs that were listed gave them the impression that they were unwaveringly linked to several of the alcohol-related drinking problems Jerry and Sarah had been suffering through.

A Truthful Conversation About Drinking Circumstances Reveals Alcohol Related Relationship, Legal, Financial, Employment, and Health Problems

After watching the television special, Jerry and Sarah made up their minds to have a truthful conversation about their drinking behavior. They both were in agreement that most, if not all, of their social functions were associated with drinking, that they were drinking in an excessive manner, and that as a couple, they were beginning to observe alcohol related relationship, financial, legal, employment, and health problems for the first time in their lives.

With thoughts of the television documentary still running through her mind, Sarah asked Jerry if some of the alcoholism signs they have been displaying could be a warning that they are addicted to alcohol or possibly becoming addicted to alcohol. Jerry didn’t know the answer to Sarah’s inquiry and so he recommended that they make an appointment with one of the physicians at the local alcohol abuse rehabilitation facility to find out more about the severity of their drinking difficulties.

Concentrating On Your Drinking Issues Just May Lower Your Trepidation and Give You Some Quietude

Ironically, although their drinking circumstances hadn’t yet changed, it was clear to see that Sarah and Jerry were at least facing their drinking problems, they were ready to find out more about their drinking behavior, and they were interested in learning how they could substantially cut back on or eliminate the drinking-related difficulties that had started to emerge.

When Sarah and Jerry went to bed that evening, they made up their minds that the next day, Jerry would call and schedule an appointment for both of them at the substance abuse treatment facility located just North of the State Capital. After they made a promise to one another that they would do whatever it takes to rise above the alcohol-related difficulties that had emerged in their lives, they truly had the most refreshing night’s sleep they could recollect in the last nine months.

Just before he fell asleep, Jerry turned to Sarah and remarked how painless it is to decrease one’s trepidation and actually experience some peace of mind by handling one’s problems with conviction and making up one’s mind to do something affirmative about them.

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.