I drank a few times at age 11 but it was at 13 that I stared drinking and using frequently. Alcoholism runs in my family; my dad's dad drank and my dad pretty much stayed away from it because of bad experiences with his dad. But my dad took a lot of fairly heavy duty tranquilizers for anxiety, not all of which were prescribed (he was able to get lots of samples from a family member). I swiped a few when I was using and was really surprised at how strong they were. Only a few, though; downers really weren't my thing. But dad had a drug problem. He still does, only now (in his 80s) it is opioids for mostly legit pain.