5 Types of Alcoholics According to the NIAAA

Many young adult alcoholics are likely college students who are away from home for the first time, and who are surrounded by a culture that promotes and encourages excessive social drinking. When healthcare providers screen for this condition, they look at drinking behavior patterns within the last year to determine a diagnosis. They use a set of 11 criteria established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual https://ecosoberhouse.com/ of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) to assess alcohol use severity. Generally, however, the difference between alcohol misuse and AUD lies in looking at how a person drinks in the short term, as opposed to over a prolonged period of time. Drinking alcohol too much or too often, or being unable to control alcohol consumption, can be a sign of alcohol misuse and, in some cases, alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Genetic variation

Alcohol impacts brain chemistry, and regular exposure to the mind-altering substance may actually change the way the brain’s circuitry works. An individual may then suffer from cravings and withdrawal symptoms when alcohol isn’t active in the bloodstream, encouraging the person to drink more to feel better. Over 6 percent of American adults battled an alcohol use disorder (AUD) in 2015, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) 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. Under the direction of licensed therapists or counselors, behavioral therapies involve psychological strategies to modify drinking behaviors. The therapy goals are to develop the skills needed to manage your habits, build social support, set and work toward realistic goals, and deal with or avoid things that trigger drinking.

Factors affecting alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm

Learn about the signs of drug addiction and steps to take when you suspect addiction with The Recovery Team. Recognizing the signs and intervening early in alcohol dependency significantly why do people become alcoholics enhances the likelihood of successful recovery. Alcoholism can have profound social and economic consequences, impacting various aspects of an individual’s life and society at large.

Online Therapy Can Help

Use of this website and any information contained herein is governed by the Healthgrades User Agreement. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that 140,000 people die each year due to alcohol-related causes. Contributors to this article for the NIAAA Core Resource on Alcohol include the writers for the full article, reviewers, and editorial staff. These contributors included both experts external to NIAAA as well as NIAAA staff. Familial alcoholism illustrated in “The Peasants Supper,” 1642, by Les Fréres Le Nain.

What causes alcohol use disorder?

They’ll recommend treatments and resources to help you recover from alcohol use disorder. The presence of any two symptoms within a one-year period can result in a diagnosis of alcohol addiction. As previously mentioned, however, there are multiple types of alcoholic subtypes. The following checklists for each type can help you determine which subtype you might fall into. The largest percentage of alcoholics fall into this group, as NIAAA publishes that 31.5 percent of all alcoholics in the United States fit this subtype. This group is typically in their late teens or early 20s, and either just of legal drinking age or slightly younger.

Emotional Turmoil: Long-term Toll on Mental Health

Mental health disorders that commonly co-occur with AUD

• If a DUI court makes a referral to child protective services, the agency assesses the potential risks to the children and may remove them from the parental home.
• The social impact of alcohol abuse is a separate issue from the financial costs involved, and that impact begins in the home, extends into the community, and often affects society as a whole, much like the financial impact does.
• Alcohol’s effects go beyond it’s effects on individual health and well-being; it also has steep economic and societal costs.
• If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorder, please explore our comprehensive resources and inpatient and outpatient treatment options at Caron.
• These screenings are when health care professionals ask people not only if they drink, but also how much they drink.

Risk of Psychosis

Behavioral Treatments

• Excessive alcohol consumption heightens the risk of different types of cancer, including those of the liver, throat, esophagus, mouth, and breast.
• According to the NIAAA, to determine the level of severity, individuals are asked questions similar to what’s listed below.
• The resolution of these discrepancies will likely require further studies in additional subject populations.
• Drinking may then be used as a method of self-medicating the personality disorder symptoms.
• Explore the link between ADHD and addiction and learn treatment strategies for managing them with The Recovery Team.