The Different Types Of Alcoholism & Alcohol Use Disorder

A range of drinking habits can be harmful, including heavy drinking and binge drinking. Chronic severe alcoholism is the rarest type, affecting less than 10 percent of people with an alcohol problem. This type of alcoholism is most common in middle-aged people who began drinking at a young age and later developed serious dependence. Functional (high-functioning) alcoholics make up about 20 percent of people who struggle with alcohol abuse or addiction.

Making up more than 31% of all alcoholics, the young adult subtype is by far the most common type of alcoholic in the United States. The average age of the young adult subtype is 25, with many in the category developing a dependence to alcohol by the age of 20. A large portion of individuals in this category of alcoholics become alcoholics during their college years, where alcohol is deeply ingrained into the college experience. It can be extremely difficult to tell if someone is addicted to alcohol or not at this time, as it is normal to drink regularly and to excess. Plus, the peers of the young adult subtype are not always aware of the warning signs of alcoholism and can easily excuse away abnormal drinking behaviors. Many young antisocial alcoholics also have other mental health disorders like anxiety, bipolar disorder, or depression.

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These new types help scientists and healthcare specialists create more appropriate prescriptions to treat this deadly disease. Type I alcoholics begin drinking later in life, while Type II start drinking at a young age.

They’re young adults who rarely seek help for alcohol dependence. About 24 years old, they became alcoholics by age 20, on average. They drink less frequently than other alcoholics, but they tend to binge drink when they drink. Almost 27% of intermediate familial alcohol dependents have sought help for their drinking problem. They tend to prefer self-help groups, detoxification programs, specialty treatment programs and individual private health care providers. Researchers found that about 62% of functional alcoholics work full-time, 3.6% are in school full-time, and 5% are retired.

Alcoholic Symptoms

Moderate drinking is the only safe way to consume alcohol, but drinking in general isn’t safe for everyone. At this point, you have an attachment to alcohol that has taken over your regular routine.

Along with the abuse of alcohol, many young antisocial alcoholics also form dependencies on tobacco and marijuana. A smaller group also form habits related to more extreme drugs like cocaine and heroin. As this review has outlined, throughout the past 150 years, researchers and clinicians have developed numerous typological classifications of alcoholism. As shown in table 2, similar alcoholic subtypes can be categorized within two broad groups, called the Apollonian and Dionysian types, based on recurrent characteristics of the drinkers.

How Can You Get Help If You’re An Alcoholic?

Over 6 percent of American adults battled an alcohol use disorder in 2015, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism publishes. Less than 10 percent of adults in the United States who struggled with alcoholism in 2015 received professional treatment for the disease, NIAAA further reports.

• Understanding the types of alcoholics first relies on having an understanding of alcohol use disorder .
• The young adult subtype is the most prevalent subtype, making up 31.5% of people who are alcohol dependent.
• Arounda thirdof alcoholics in this sub-type have a family history of problem drinking that goes back multiple generations.
• Only 8.7% of young adult alcohol dependents have ever sought treatment for their drinking problem.
• Created for family members of people with alcohol abuse or drug abuse problems.

For some alcoholics, the drinking periods are determined by internal cues, such as the onset of menses in women. For others, external opportunities, such as a worker’s payday or sailor’s shore leave, govern the periodicity of inebriety. Intervals of intense nervous irritability and depression commonly precede the drinking periods. Periodic inebriety often takes the form of temporary insanity, in which the drinker’s behavior is characterized by mania, violence, or impulsive criminal behavior. In 1876 the association established the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, which, over a period of 38 years, published numerous articles by leading physicians from the United States and abroad about the different forms of alcoholism. Similar societies formed in England, under Norman Kerr’s leadership, and in France, under Valentin-Jacques Magnan’s direction.

Intermediate Familial Alcoholic

Within this group, the average age at which someone develops an alcohol addiction is 20 years old. As was mentioned above, some people believe there are seven types of alcoholics. If your drinking causes distress or problems in your daily life, you likely would be diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder. Once you do that, you will be ready to enter into analcoholism treatment program. It is essential for you to understand what led to your addiction so that you can get the help you need to make changes in your life.

An estimated 17.3 million report heavy alcohol use, while an estimated 138.3 million Americans drink alcohol.1 Since alcohol is legal and widely available, it’s more commonly abused than other addictive substances. There are a variety of risk factors for developing an alcohol use problem. A complex mix of genetic, physical, psychological, and social 5 types of alcoholics factors combine to increase a person’s chances of developing alcohol dependence. Other studies compared alcoholics with and without coexistent psychopathologies. Functional alcoholics make up 19.4% of alcohol-dependent individuals. They also have a later age of first drinking and a later onset of alcohol dependence at an average of 37 years.

What Are The Risks Of Alcohol Abuse?

Meanwhile, more than 50 percent of young antisocial alcoholics have a familial history of addiction and about half have antisocial personality disorder. Since alcohol can reduce social inhibitions and make people feel more relaxed, they may use it to self-medicate.

Your dependency on alcohol, family history or medical history, and the length of time you have abused alcohol will affect the best treatment program. They can attend an outpatient treatment program, participate in group therapy, counselling, and education, and then go home at night to sleep. People who need a more intensive, more comprehensive approach to treatment may glean the most benefit from a residential treatment program. It is important to note that a functional alcoholic will need to participate in peer or12-step support programsfor them to succeed for someone to succeed.

It is never a good idea to attempt to quit drinking on your own if you are an alcoholic. You need to go through a solidalcohol detox program that can help you begin the process. Among those who met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence, 4.5% of them were men and 2.5% of them were women. The DSM-5 defines severe alcohol problems as being an alcohol use disorder.

About 31% of functional alcoholics have a close family member who also has alcohol dependence. They have moderate rates of major depression (24%) and smoking cigarettes (43%), and low rates of anxiety disorders, other substance use disorders, and the lowest rates of having legal problems (fewer than 1%). They are also young and have the earliest age of onset of drinking and the earliest age of alcohol dependence . Young antisocial alcoholics drank an average of 201 days in the last year, binge drinking on an average of 80% of their drinking days. When they drink, their maximum number of drinks is 17, the highest of any subtype of alcoholic. Functional alcoholics may underestimate the severity of mood disorders.

His research gives incredible insight into how people progress as they continue to drink. Someone in the Gamma stage does not have control over his or her alcohol use. According to Jellinek, these individuals are suffering from the disease. If you find that the above descriptions resemble you or a loved one, you’re not alone. At The Recovery Village, we offer evidence-based treatment methods that can address every aspect of each client’s treatment needs.

Penick EC, Reed MR, Crawley PA, Powell BJ. Differentiation of alcoholics by family history. Antisocial alcoholism is characterized by the early onset of both alcohol-related problems and antisocial behavior. This alcoholism type is thought to have a genetic basis and a poor prognosis. 2Epsilon alcoholism, the fifth species, is not included in this table because Jellinek considered knowledge of that subtype to be too scant to describe in detail.

You come from a home where a close family member probably struggled with alcoholism. You are likely to have a close family member who struggles with alcoholism. When you do drink, however, you may be unable to stop and commonly drink more than you meant to in a sitting. You may have a close family member who struggles with alcoholism.

Research also indicates that students on campuses with higher binge drinking rates experience more physical assaults and unwanted sexual advances. If you have experienced any of the symptoms listed above, or are worried about the drinking habits of a loved one, don’t wait to seek treatment. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has identified five types of alcoholism Sober living houses to describe the different characteristics of alcoholics. All forms of alcoholism are serious and may require professional treatment. If you have developed a drinking problem, or are currently Googling “alcohol rehab centers near me”, reach out to the team at Asheville Recovery Center. We’ll help you get to the root of your challenges and guide you on the road to recovery.

From people in active recovery to advocates who have lost loved ones to the devastating disease of addiction, our community understands the struggle and provides guidance born of personal experience. Once you know what type of alcoholic you, or a loved one is, it will be a good tool in figuring out how to manage the problem. The therapy or alcohol rehabilitation program can be more acute which gives you a better chance of recovering successfully. If you, or someone you know, displays just 2-3 of the following, you could be considered to have mild alcohol use disorder. For drinkers who show 4-5 of the symptoms, it would be considered that you have a moderate problem with alcohol. For those with 6 symptoms or more, this is considered severe alcohol use. The young adult subtype is not entirely made up of college students, as there are also many young adults who struggle with alcoholism who are already in the workforce and/or unemployed.