Antisocial personality disorder commonly co-occurs with alcohol abuse, as alcohol can lower social inhibitions and anxiety, and make a person feel more relaxed. Drinking may then be used as a method of self-medicating the personality disorder symptoms. People who fall into the young adult alcoholic subtype also rarely have a family history of alcoholism. Alcoholism is considered to be a heritable disease, as NIAAA reports that genetics can account for about half of the risk for developing the disease. The flip side of this coin, however, is that environmental and other factors make liberty bells mushrooms up the other half of the risks for the onset of addiction. While approximately 15 million American adults suffer from alcohol use disorder, fewer than 1 in 10 typically seek treatment for addiction.
They also have high probability of suffering from antisocial personality disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder. This group also suffers from high rates of cigarette, marijuana, and cocaine addiction. Many people who fall into the young antisocial alcoholic subtype suffer from other mental what does ketoacidosis smell like health disorders as well, such as bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, or depression. As many as three-fourths of this subset also smoke marijuana and/or cigarettes, and many also struggle with opioid or cocaine addictions as well. Polydrug abuse, and co-occurring disorders combined with alcohol abuse, increases the risk for addiction and can interfere with treatment measures.
Intermediate Familial Alcoholics
Classifying alcoholism into subtypes can also help identify and remove barriers to professional assessment and treatment. For example, those in the chronic and severe subgroup tend to have the lowest socioeconomic status. This means that while they may benefit most from inpatient treatment, they may not be able to financially afford the cost. One way to help remove that barrier to treatment would be to support these people in seeking affordable insurance options, treatment grants, scholarships, or loans.
Getting Help for Alcoholism
Nearly 26% have a college degree or higher, and the average household income is almost $60,000, the highest among any of the subtypes. Functional alcoholics make up 19.4% of alcohol-dependent individuals. They also have a later age of first drinking (average of 19 years) and a later onset of alcohol dependence at an average of 37 years. They tend to drink alcohol every other day, an average of 181 days per year, and they consume five or more drinks on 54% of those days. 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.