These treatment options can help you or your loved one take the first step toward sobriety and live a healthier, happier life. If you are looking for the right treatment option for yourself or someone you know, it is important to speak with a doctor or mental health professional about the best action plan. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) studied alcoholics and how they differ.

Because the personality characteristics are inherited independently of each other, traits such as high harm avoidance and high novelty seeking are not mutually exclusive and can occur in the same person. Thus, the type I and type II prototypes only represent the two extremes of a continuous spectrum of manifestations of alcohol abuse. A person’s genes, ethnicity, gender, and the presence of mental health disorders may all increase the risk of developing an addiction. In fact, it is estimated that nearly two-thirds of people in treatment programs for addiction are men. In addition, more than one in four adults living with serious mental health problems also has a substance use problem.

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. This subtype of alcoholics is generally in their mid-20s and started drinking young. Early episodes of binge and heavy drinking (binge drinking on five or more days in the same month) can elevate the risk for struggling with alcohol-related issues later in life.

Mixing Weed and Alcohol: Effects and Risks

In this blog article, we cover the different types of alcoholics and how they can seek help to stay sober. Chronic severe alcoholics have the highest rate of family members who also experience alcohol dependence at77%. Researchers foundthat they have the highest rates of employment among alcoholics, with 68% working full-time and an average family income of nearly $50,000 a year. About 64% are male, while around 38% are married and 21% are divorced. While understanding the different types of alcoholism is crucial, effective treatment is equally important for navigating this substance use disorder.

Psychodynamic (Supportive-Expressive Therapy)

This group drinks more frequently than any other, although their total alcohol intake is less than the young antisocial subtype. Two-thirds of this subtype have sought help for their alcoholism at some point, making them by far the most likely to have done so. They often seek help at self-help groups, rehabilitation programs, and detox programs.

Can People With Alcohol Use Disorder Recover?

Person-centered treatment helps provide treatment modalities that are most suited to the individual. For example, those with how old was demi lovato in 2008 co-occurring mental health disorders typically require integrated substance use and mental health treatment—known as dual diagnosis treatment—to fully recover. Classifying the five types of alcoholism was an important step for addiction research and treatment because it acknowledges the variability in addictive behaviors, symptoms, and consequences.

There are, however, five identified subtypes of alcoholics as identified by the National Institute of Health. Behavioral treatments—also known as alcohol counseling, or talk therapy, and provided by licensed therapists—are aimed at changing drinking behavior. Examples of behavioral treatments are brief interventions and reinforcement approaches, treatments that build motivation and teach skills for coping and preventing a return to drinking, and mindfulness-based therapies. A health care provider might ask the following questions to assess a person’s symptoms. Functional alcoholics have an average household income of almost $60,000 and the lowest rates of legal issues.

1. The terms “alcoholism” and “alcoholic” carry a heavy stigma that can discourage individuals from seeking help.
2. Maintaining sobriety after treatment for substance use is no small undertaking.
3. This group has the lowest levels of education, employment, and income of any group.
4. 12-step facilitation therapy is an engagement strategy used in counseling sessions to increase an individual’s active involvement in 12-step-based mutual-support groups.

It can also serve as a guide to what treatment programs can help best. Since the causes of alcoholism vary from person to person, the best treatment for one might not work for the next. While treatment for all alcoholics remains generally similar, some may respond better to different addiction support types than others.

Of all subtypes, the functional subtype is the least likely to have legal problems; they are the least likely to report problems due to their drinking. They have the highest education levels and incomes of all types of alcoholics. These are people that may seem to have their lives together; they may be the ones that others look up to. However, while they are “functional” in a sense, they are still suffering from addiction. Less than 20% of this subgroup has sought help, and most do so from a 12-step program or a private health care professional.

Just like any other medical condition, people with substance use disorders deserve to have a range of treatment options available to them. Scientists are working to develop a larger menu of pharmaceutical treatments that could be tailored to individual needs. When asked how alcohol problems are treated, people commonly think of 12-step programs or 28-day inpatient treatment centers but may have difficulty naming other options. In fact, there are many treatment options available thanks to significant advances in medical and behavioral research over the past decades. AUD is characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences.