The young adult subtype is the most prevalent subtype, making up 31.5% of people who are alcohol dependent. The average age of dependent young adults is almost 25 years old, and they first became dependent at an average age of around 20 years old. They tend to drink less frequently than people of other types (an average of 143 days a year). However, most of their drinking is binge drinking – they drink 5 or more drinks on 73% of their drinking days. This pattern of alcohol use is more likely to be hazardous than non-binging patterns. Around 19.5 percent of the alcoholic population in the United States falls into the functional alcoholic subtype.
This subtype also battles antisocial personality disorder at high rates and regularly has issues with the law and therefore criminal or legal troubles as well. Unlike the previous type, this group is defined by the co-occurrence of mental disorders. They come from families where alcohol dependency may be common, leading to early exposure and abuse. This detrimental exposure can create or aggravate existing mental health disorders like major depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. 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.
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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. This group has the lowest levels of education, employment, and income of any group. This group also drinks more at once and more overall than other groups, although they drink slightly less frequently. On the other hand, this group is more likely to seek help than almost any other; 35% sought out some form of assistance in overcoming alcoholism.
What others don’t know is that getting help early can reduce health problems and in some cases, reverse organ damage. So if you or your loved one is exhibiting symptoms of ANY of these types of alcoholism, don’t wait too long! Jellinek considers both the gamma and delta types of alcoholism as diseases as they both involve alcohol tolerance, physiological dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Since the causes of alcoholism vary from person to person, the best treatment for one might not work for the next.
Findings of the Stockholm Adoption Study
There are a variety of treatment options, including therapy, support groups, and rehabilitation programs, that can provide the support and guidance needed to overcome addiction. When we talk about alcoholic beverages, we refer to drinks containing ethanol, the only type of alcohol safe for human consumption. However, keep in mind that the alcohol content varies among different drinks. It would seem logical to begin a discussion of the history of typology with E.M. Jellinek’s classic work on the different “species” of alcoholism (1960a, b), which is widely considered to be the first scientific alcoholism typology.

And Hsiao-Ye Yi, Ph.D., of the Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System at CSR Inc., in Arlington, Virginia. Detoxification usually lasts a few days to a week, depending on the severity of your addiction. This process begins with medical evaluation and stabilization before beginning the detox process. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information. We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.
How Healthcare Providers Determine the Severity Level
Type I and type II alcoholics also differed in their patterns of electrical brain waves as measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). These differences existed when the subjects were resting (Cloninger 1987a), but also when they were exposed to certain stimuli. Uncommon stimuli interspersed among common stimuli (e.g., a rare green light among a sequence of red and yellow lights) elicit brain waves, called event-related potentials (ERP’s), that are made up of several components. A commonly studied ERP component is called P300, because it occurs about 300 milliseconds after the uncommon stimulus.
If you or a loved one is ready to overcome an alcohol addiction, reach out today. Treatment providers can connect you with programs that provide the tools to help you get and stay sober. 2Treatment matching refers to the concept that alcoholics with specific characteristics will benefit most from certain treatment approaches. Nevertheless, Jellinek’s work provided typology research with a new impetus that ushered in the post-Jellinek era of typology development.
Understanding Alcoholism: 5 Different Types of Alcoholics
Since the type I-type II alcoholism classification was developed, many researchers have confirmed the findings of the original studies and have further investigated differences between the two subtypes. Conversely, type II alcoholism generally commenced during adolescence or early adulthood, and alcohol consumption frequently was accompanied by fighting and arrests. In addition, alcohol abuse was moderately severe and frequently required treatment, although the severity of abuse did not change over time as it did in type I alcoholism. The second of the five types of alcoholics are the young antisocial subtypes. This group equates to more than one-fifth of those with significant drinking problems.

Binge drinking can bring blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 percent. At this level, motor skills may be impaired, which can lead to serious injuries and severe 5 types of alcoholics mood swings. For adolescent binge drinkers, this could mean interference with brain development, which may potentially result in deficits in cognitive functions.