THE GOOD, BAD OF ALCOHOLISM
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US History Encyclopedia: Alcoholism
The term "alcoholism" is a noun and concept suggesting both a destructively and chronically excessive beverage alcohol consumption and a medical-style conception of the source, character, explanation, and social and medical handling of the purported condition. The word's introduction is often attributed to Swedish physician Magnus Huss in 1849. The same two broad ideas have been conveyed in a changing parade of terminology since 1800—including, for example, "dipsomania," "inebriety," "habitual drunkenness," "alcohol addiction," "problem drinker," and others. Ordinary language has many words for the excessive drinker, too—including "drunkard," "boozehound," "sot," "lush," "wino," etc.—although these do not necessarily connote medico-scientific causation. Slang words or phrases for drunkenness are most numerous of all—for example, "blitzed," "bombed," "blasted," "three sheets to the wind," "wiped out," and a great many more—one scholar counted hundreds. Beginning in the late 1970s, "alcohol dependence," or the "alcohol dependence syndrome," became the preferred medico-psychiatric terms for the condition. However, the word "alcoholism" has persisted in popular thought and common usage.
An American preoccupation with alcohol-related excess dates back to the beginnings of the republic and beyond. Dr. Benjamin Rush—a physician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and often regarded as father to both American psychiatry and the American temperance movement—authored a treatise in 1784 titled An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits, in which the disease character of chronic drunkenness was asserted. Establishment of an inebriate's asylum was proposed as early as 1830 in Connecticut, and such an institution given form in a widely read paper by Dr. Samuel Woodward in 1838. The Washingtonian Movement, a lay self-and mutual-help movement, gained wide fame in the 1840s and occasioned the rise of special homes for inebriates. This short-lived movement in turn gave way to the development of larger asylums in the 1850s and 1860s—the first such state-run institution opened in Binghamton, New York in 1864. Dr. Leslie Keeley opened the first of his private treatment sanatoriums in 1880, and by 1901 was reported to have thirty-nine facilities nationwide. National Prohibition (1919–1933) did little, however, to advance alcoholism treatment in the nation.
A "modern alcoholism movement," ostensibly aimed at rescuing the alcoholic from the ignorance and maltreatment of the past, had its beginnings very soon after the repeal of Prohibition on 5 December 1933. The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) often dates its origins to a chance meeting between its two founders, "Bill W." (William G. Wilson) and "Dr. Bob" (Robert H. Smith) in May 1935. Soon afterward, the American scientific community began a push to unravel the mystery of alcoholism and other alcohol-related problems. Although the two post-Prohibition enterprises—AA and modern science—were remarkably different from each other in character and approach, a loose coalition of the two was fashioned in the mid-1940s by Marty Mann and E. M. Jellinek.
Marty Mann was the daughter of a well-to-do socialite family that fell on hard times in the Great Depression, and was herself brought low by heavy drinking in the mid-1930s. Mann was hired by E. M. Jellinek of the Yale Center on Alcohol Studies, the chief center for new alcohol science at the time, to persuade the American public that alcoholism was a disease, that the alcoholic required and deserved treatment, and that such care was a public responsibility. Mann's organization—originally named the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA); later (and in its heyday), the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA); and eventually, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)—was launched in October 1944. Behind the scenes, Jellinek and the leadership of Yale's alcohol science enterprise were hoping that Mann's new campaign would provide grassroots support for the expansion of alcoholism treatment and the promotion of scientific research—in much the same way that the American Cancer Society had served that function for cancer researchers. Jellinek doubtless looked forward to the expansion of AA as an ever growing source of members interested in scientific inquiry into alcoholism.
Perhaps the crowning achievement of the modern alcoholism movement was the creation of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on New Year's Eve, 1970. Along with the success of the modern alcoholism movement, however, came more than a few challenges and changes. New research, sponsored by NIAAA, undermined some of the tenets of the movement's traditional beliefs about alcoholism—seeming to show, for example, that some alcoholics could safely return to controlled drinking. The availability of new and significantly increased government funding for alcoholism research and treatment tended both to professionalize the field and to bring in competing conceptual models and institutions. Moreover, popular attention began to shift its focus to other alcohol-related problems: a new emphasis on fetal alcohol syndrome in the mid-1970s; the rise around 1980 of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) campaigns; and a growing concern with college and underage drinking in the 1990s. These issues tended to dilute societal attention paid to the alcoholic, though a thriving alcoholism research enterprise continued apace at NIAAA.
Alcoholism, once the province of a determined post-Prohibition and post-World War II (1939–1945) movement, has become parent to a wider preoccupation with addictions. Through it all, however, AA has continued to sustain its central place in the alcoholism topic arena—despite the growth of a diffuse and vocal chorus of critics and providers of would-be alternatives. Illicit drugs—and the so-called "War on Drugs"—and tobacco have eclipsed alcohol in popular attention, and also to an extent reshaped and recontextualized alcohol as "a drug," or one among several "substance abuse" or "chemical dependency" problems.
The term "alcoholism" is a noun and concept suggesting both a destructively and chronically excessive beverage alcohol consumption and a medical-style conception of the source, character, explanation, and social and medical handling of the purported condition. The word's introduction is often attributed to Swedish physician Magnus Huss in 1849. The same two broad ideas have been conveyed in a changing parade of terminology since 1800—including, for example, "dipsomania," "inebriety," "habitual drunkenness," "alcohol addiction," "problem drinker," and others. Ordinary language has many words for the excessive drinker, too—including "drunkard," "boozehound," "sot," "lush," "wino," etc.—although these do not necessarily connote medico-scientific causation. Slang words or phrases for drunkenness are most numerous of all—for example, "blitzed," "bombed," "blasted," "three sheets to the wind," "wiped out," and a great many more—one scholar counted hundreds. Beginning in the late 1970s, "alcohol dependence," or the "alcohol dependence syndrome," became the preferred medico-psychiatric terms for the condition. However, the word "alcoholism" has persisted in popular thought and common usage.
An American preoccupation with alcohol-related excess dates back to the beginnings of the republic and beyond. Dr. Benjamin Rush—a physician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and often regarded as father to both American psychiatry and the American temperance movement—authored a treatise in 1784 titled An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits, in which the disease character of chronic drunkenness was asserted. Establishment of an inebriate's asylum was proposed as early as 1830 in Connecticut, and such an institution given form in a widely read paper by Dr. Samuel Woodward in 1838. The Washingtonian Movement, a lay self-and mutual-help movement, gained wide fame in the 1840s and occasioned the rise of special homes for inebriates. This short-lived movement in turn gave way to the development of larger asylums in the 1850s and 1860s—the first such state-run institution opened in Binghamton, New York in 1864. Dr. Leslie Keeley opened the first of his private treatment sanatoriums in 1880, and by 1901 was reported to have thirty-nine facilities nationwide. National Prohibition (1919–1933) did little, however, to advance alcoholism treatment in the nation.
A "modern alcoholism movement," ostensibly aimed at rescuing the alcoholic from the ignorance and maltreatment of the past, had its beginnings very soon after the repeal of Prohibition on 5 December 1933. The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) often dates its origins to a chance meeting between its two founders, "Bill W." (William G. Wilson) and "Dr. Bob" (Robert H. Smith) in May 1935. Soon afterward, the American scientific community began a push to unravel the mystery of alcoholism and other alcohol-related problems. Although the two post-Prohibition enterprises—AA and modern science—were remarkably different from each other in character and approach, a loose coalition of the two was fashioned in the mid-1940s by Marty Mann and E. M. Jellinek.
Marty Mann was the daughter of a well-to-do socialite family that fell on hard times in the Great Depression, and was herself brought low by heavy drinking in the mid-1930s. Mann was hired by E. M. Jellinek of the Yale Center on Alcohol Studies, the chief center for new alcohol science at the time, to persuade the American public that alcoholism was a disease, that the alcoholic required and deserved treatment, and that such care was a public responsibility. Mann's organization—originally named the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA); later (and in its heyday), the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA); and eventually, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)—was launched in October 1944. Behind the scenes, Jellinek and the leadership of Yale's alcohol science enterprise were hoping that Mann's new campaign would provide grassroots support for the expansion of alcoholism treatment and the promotion of scientific research—in much the same way that the American Cancer Society had served that function for cancer researchers. Jellinek doubtless looked forward to the expansion of AA as an ever growing source of members interested in scientific inquiry into alcoholism.
Perhaps the crowning achievement of the modern alcoholism movement was the creation of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on New Year's Eve, 1970. Along with the success of the modern alcoholism movement, however, came more than a few challenges and changes. New research, sponsored by NIAAA, undermined some of the tenets of the movement's traditional beliefs about alcoholism—seeming to show, for example, that some alcoholics could safely return to controlled drinking. The availability of new and significantly increased government funding for alcoholism research and treatment tended both to professionalize the field and to bring in competing conceptual models and institutions. Moreover, popular attention began to shift its focus to other alcohol-related problems: a new emphasis on fetal alcohol syndrome in the mid-1970s; the rise around 1980 of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) campaigns; and a growing concern with college and underage drinking in the 1990s. These issues tended to dilute societal attention paid to the alcoholic, though a thriving alcoholism research enterprise continued apace at NIAAA.
Alcoholism, once the province of a determined post-Prohibition and post-World War II (1939–1945) movement, has become parent to a wider preoccupation with addictions. Through it all, however, AA has continued to sustain its central place in the alcoholism topic arena—despite the growth of a diffuse and vocal chorus of critics and providers of would-be alternatives. Illicit drugs—and the so-called "War on Drugs"—and tobacco have eclipsed alcohol in popular attention, and also to an extent reshaped and recontextualized alcohol as "a drug," or one among several "substance abuse" or "chemical dependency" problems.
Alcoholism, also known as alcohol dependence, is a disease that includes the following four symptoms:
Craving – A strong need, or urge, to drink.
Loss of control – Not being able to stop drinking once drinking has begun.
Physical dependence – Withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety after stopping drinking.
Tolerance – The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol to get “high”.
What Alcoholism Does to You:
Liver damage (scarring of the liver) Heart disease Ulcers (due to irritation of the stomach lining by alcohol) Poor nutrition, because alcohol robs the body of some vitamins and minerals and interferes with digestion of food that is eaten "DT's"--delirium tremens--resulting from alcohol withdrawal, which shows as confusion, memory loss, and sometimes seeing or hearing things that are not there Cancer of the mouth, esophagus, or stomach Brain damage, possibly leading to insanity Damage to a developing fetus if you drink while pregnant .
What is a safe level of drinking?
Is it safe to drink during pregnancy?
Does alcohol affect older people differently?
Does alcohol affect women differently?
Is alcohol good for your heart?
When taking medications, must you stop drinking?
How can a person get help for an alcohol problem?
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism At A Glance
Is it safe to drink during pregnancy?
Does alcohol affect older people differently?
Does alcohol affect women differently?
Is alcohol good for your heart?
When taking medications, must you stop drinking?
How can a person get help for an alcohol problem?
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism At A Glance
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