Quit Alcohol Support – Defining Alcoholism

[youtube:6qCNKVqZ1MQ?version=3;[link:Best Way To Stop Drinking];https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qCNKVqZ1MQ?version=3&feature=related] When you see someone in the street drinking something out of a brown paper bag, you automatically assume that they are drinking alcohol, although it is difficult to pin point back to when it actually took off. We can though confirm that the ideology of alcoholism dates back to 1849 when Magnus Huss first linked the consumption of alcohol to serious health conditions.

It wasn’t until the late 1930s that the word alcoholism was officially recognized by the US as a result of the forming of the still well known support group Alcoholics Anonymous or as it is now commonly referred to as AA. Although is it not clearly defined as such they do insist that it lies somewhere between an illness and an allergy and that getting over it requires the assistance of team support methods of accountability and responsibility, which are still the preferred methods to control alcoholism.

The first Doctor to classify problems in chronic alcoholics was E. Morton Jellinek from New England. He defined an alcoholic as being a person who through the consumption of such large quantities of alcohol, had resulted in dramatic effects on his or her bodily and or mental health. These changes would also end up affecting the alcoholic’s personal relationships and or their employment capabilities.

He therefore concluded that treatment was necessary and nothing much has changed since then except that the definition has been slightly altered by a number of medical affiliations. The word alcoholism is currently referred to by the American Medical Association as a particular chronic primary disease.

Some minorities in the medical field, such as Herbert Fingarette and Stanton Peele, argue against alcoholism being considered a disease. But, critics of the disease theory acknowledge that the word alcoholism; refers to a disease, and use the term heavy drinking; when discussing the harmful effects of alcohol consumption.

So the definition of alcoholism remains an uncertainty meaning that it is extremely hard to detect, especially as there isn’t much to separate an alcoholic from a person who just drinks on regular basis. I am afraid that this debate will just have to continue and if you want to participate in finding a solution then you need to investigate what is going on over at the stopdrinkingadvice.org blog as this seems to be the only place which is putting an effort at all into finding the answer.

Find out more about this tried and tested support to help Stop Drinking Written by Ed Philips and Quit Alcohol In Only 21 Days