Disease or Mental Disorder

Society has come along way from believing that an individual drank into a drunken stage because they wanted to. People who were once called Drunkards, are now referred to as alcoholics, or alcohol dependents. E. M. Jellinek, one of the leading Post-Prohibition American pioneers on alcoholism, is credited widely with beginning the modern study of alcoholism as a disease. In 1946 he defined alcoholism broadly as any use of alcoholic beverages that causes any damage to the individual, to society, or both, and described a classification system of ‘subtypes’ of alcoholism ‘that range from non- progressive use (alpha) to chronic recurring inability to abstain from alcohol use (delta). Historically Jelinek took the stigma attached to alcohol addiction. He took alcoholism from being looked at as a bad habit, to being a concept of actual disease. He Studied groups of thousands in AA. And their behavioral patters. He categorized and defined the stages of alcoholism into these subtypes.
Definition of alcoholism: any use of alcoholic beverages that causes any damage to the individual, to society, or both. Subtypes are:
ALPHA:Use to relieve bodily or emotional pain; not progressive

BETA:Heavy drinking (cultural, social) leading to heavy organ damage GAMMA:Tolerance; psychological dependence (craving); physical dependence (withdrawal); impaired control
DELTA: Tolerance; psychological and physical dependence; inability to abstain
EPSILON: Dipsomania (periodic binges) Jelinek believed that certain behaviors and phases led to ones alcoholism, and that alcoholics could be rehabbed. Jelleniks work has ben largely responsible for shifting the view of alcoholism as a defect, rather than a disease. His belief did not go without criticism. In retrospect, Jellinek may have blurred rather than