The History of Alcoholism .

When you see someone in the street drinking something out of a brown paper bag, you automatically assume that they are drinking alcohol, although it is difficult to pin point back to when it actually took off. We can though confirm that the ideology of alcoholism dates back to 1849 when Magnus Huss first linked the consumption of alcohol to serious health conditions.

The word (alcoholism) came to be recognized in the United States with the founding and growth of a support group in 1939 called Alcoholics Anonymous, or 'AA.' Alcoholics Anonymous does not place a definition on alcoholism, but compares it to an allergy and an illness, focusing on a team support method of accountability and responsibility.

E. Morton Jellinek, a doctor from New England, was the first to classify problems seen in chronic alcoholics. Jellinek's definition of the alcoholic stated: 'Alcoholics are those excessive drinkers whose dependence on alcohol has attained such a degree that it shows notable disturbance or an interference with their bodily and mental health, their personal relationships and smooth economic functioning or who show signs of such a development.

He went on to add that this condition was in need of treatment and nothing has really changed since then apart from a few alterations in the definition by a series of medical affiliations. Today's American Medical Association refers to alcoholism as a particular chronic primary disease.

There are though let's say a minority in the medical profession who just will not accept that alcoholism is actually a disease, so critics like Herbert Fingarette and Stanton Peele only use the term heavy drinking in relation with the harmful effects of alcohol consumption.

So the definition of alcoholism remains an uncertainty meaning that it is extremely hard to detect, especially as there isn't much to separate an alcoholic from a person who just drinks on regular basis. I am afraid that this debate will just have to continue and if you want to participate in finding a solution then you need to investigate what is going on over at the Stop Drinking blog as this seems to be the only place which is putting an effort at all into finding the answer.