People have been drinking from brown paper bags for years now throughout the western world, although it is difficult to say from when it has been part of our culture. The terminology alcoholism though dates back to 1849 and has been attributed to Magnus Huss, who was a pioneer is related alcohol to serious health conditions.
The word (alcoholism) came to be recognized in the United States with the founding and growth of a support group in 1939 called Alcoholics Anonymous, or ‘AA.’ Alcoholics Anonymous does not place a definition on alcoholism, but compares it to an allergy and an illness, focusing on a team support method of accountability and responsibility.
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.
There are though let’s say a minority in the medical profession who just will not accept that alcoholism is actually a disease, so critics like Herbert Fingarette and Stanton Peele only use the term heavy drinking in relation with the harmful effects of alcohol consumption.
With alcoholism’s uncertain definition, the disease is often hard to accurately detect. There is no physical or mental difference between someone who drinks habitually and an alcoholic. To get more up to date information regarding alcoholism you should definitely take a look at the blog over at stopdrinking.org as it is a real eye opener.
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