[Psyclox]

I was just wondering is Alcoholism Hereditary?

I've read that it is hereditary. Both my parents were alcoholic & one of my brothers became an alcoholic (now sober for many years); my other brother has never taken a drink in his life due to seeing what devastation alcohol can do; I've had my times of excessive drinking. I drink moderately now--some days none--some days a few glasses of wine, but in my past I drank til I blacked out (due to untreated bp?)--Suzy

[ster]

Yes it is hereditary. This has been documented . first in the big book of AA there is a section the doctors opinion. that is the first one. I you know A theryp[yst ask them for the paper about AA and heredity Here is the chapter on this subject.
http://florida.ods.org/aa/chapters/doctor.htm

[Raynaadi]

Actually it's never been scientifically proven, it's only opinion that alchohilism is genetic. There's no way to prove it though. Neither one of my parents were alcoholic, but everyone on my mom's side of the family were, and it's possible that both my parents caught their drinking before it got out of hand, my dad admitted that to me. So...am I an alcoholic because there were people in the family who were alcoholic? Maybe. I don't really care why. I am what I am so now I live in the solution instead of the why.

~Rayna

[Perna]

It's a tendency, not the actual alcoholism itself. You won't necessarily get it if your parents/grandparents were alcoholics and you decide to drink without paying attention to control but there's a better than even chance you will.

I agree with Suzy. I think of it like I do other hereditary character "traits" only as one I don't want. My father was perhaps alcoholic but always successful and didn't have any of the gross behaviors/was always controlled but my oldest brother was not so lucky. It's very hard to tell, I think, with those of previous generations (I'm 56 and my brother is in his 60s; my parents were born in the early 19-teens) whether my father/grandmother were true alcoholics or it was "just the way it was." My father lived until 80, was a very kind/good/strong man I was proud of and loved and consider myself fortunate to have found a man "like" him to marry. I often drank heavily in my youth but don't particularly now and didn't have my brother's problems; missing work, being fired from jobs, losing friends/partners, going on "benders," losing money (running up credit cards irresponsibly), etc.

I think it is all a squishy subject with no hard and fast "line" to tell.

I don't like the idea of being afraid of one's self as if one is going to become a monster without "wanting" to/against one's will. I don't think it's quite like crack cocaine where you get addicted and truly can't quit without loads and load of help. With drinking, if you "try" it, it's not going to grab you the way cocaine does. I think it would take habitual, steady use or abuse to become an alcoholic in my book. I don't think if you had a couple drinks on Saturday night with friends playing poker, etc. you'd be/become an alcoholic. But if one lets denial sneak in there and has a history of alcoholism in one's family and doesn't use one's will power to stay free, yes, it's hereditary and can snare you.

[Raynaadi]

I disagree that alcohol isn't as addictive as cocaine. For me that's not the case. If I have one drink, it doesn't stop. One becomes an 18 pack. That's why I can't have the first drink, because it's too much. I'm only speaking for myself because I'm an alcoholic. For me it isn't a behavior or lack of willpower. Since I'm an alcoholic, I can't have even one drink (and really there's no point in one drink for me haha).

[ster]

The only way someone can tell if One drug is harder then another is to try it. and anything that affects the brain or the way a person acts is an addict I can only say it this way and I state this is for me Drinking not a problem about 35 years cocaine about 4 years and crack 6 months everything I had was gone. I will also state from me the last 16 years have been great not all the time Also to this day I have family that dispises me. When things happen in gods time.

[desirae]

I think it is the behavior and habits that are hereditary. As a child you see this and consume it as "the way". I'm not an expert, I'm not sure if it's actually a genetic physical thing. I recommend doing some research because that is actually something that you need to know...good luck.

Genetics, is just one of the factors that lead to "alcoholism" Somepeople display all the traits of "alcoholism" without ever having touched a drop.

[biplol]

I don't mean to be disrespectful to anybody, but I don't agree with AA approach, for many and different reasons.
I started drinking when I was 16, I blackout every week and it went on until I was 21.
I, myself, wanted to stop the craziness, so I did, now I drink maybe 2 glasses of wine a week, I never got drunk like that again. Except for a really bad episode I was having and it was either getting drunk or kill myself, so guess what I choose. There are many bp and depressive people in my family, that, in company with a lot of alcoholics.
I know there is a tendency, mainly because we want to feel numb.
But tendencies can change over time, it depends of how much you want to change them.
That is my opinion.

[undertheradar]

I do believe that alcoholism is hereditary. Some people can drink for years and just up and quit, I do not believe these people are truly alcoholics. I could never just quit using or drinking on my own. Alcoholism/addiction and mental illness run rampant in my family. My pdoc believes that I used drugs and alcohol to survive my bipolarism. It was either use and get FUBARed or kill myself, so I think I can say that drugs and alcohol saved my life on many occassions. I have been sober for 17 years Jan. 2nd and the last 3 years I wanted to use every day all day long. As for AA, it saved my life, PERIOD. I have friends who just quit and went on with their lives and were happy. Go figure. FWIW, MHO is that if you drink or drug and your behavior changes, you may want to take a look at yourself. Good luck.

[Raynaadi]

You may have been a heavy drinker turned a light drinker, and not alcoholic at all. I myself go to AA because I can't do the light drinking. When I tried, I was miserable. For me, it was all or nothing. AA helps keep me sober and treat the "ism" so that I lead a happy life, not the miserable one I had before.

[Raynaadi]

Congrats on 17 years!!!! =)

[undertheradar]

Thanks, I could not do the controlled using either. ALL or NOTHING!!

[biplol]

I have a quick question, and maybe that is one of the reason of me saying I don't agree with AA approach.
And please forgive me because I'm ignorant in this, I'm here trying to learn and not judging anybody, with that been said.
If you don't believe in God, How do you fill the empty spot that drugs/alcohol leave in you?
And is not that I don't believe, but I think there are a lot of people out there that don’t, so how do you get to the point were you feel complete without the addiction and at the same time it happens that you are not a believer?
I think you guys are doing great and whatever helps you stay sober is good.

[Psyclox]

The reason I posted the question is because my grandparents on my mothers side where alcholics and I never met them they died before I was born, and both my parents don't drink and yet both my sister who is 31 and myself 22 are acholics, so then if it aint hereitary then what is it?

[Perna]

It's more complicated than hereitary or not, clean and simple, I think. No one wakes up one day an alcoholic, they have to get themselves there with their choices as well as having a hereditary disposition and some people without a hereditary disposition end up alcoholics so. . . It's like "heart disease" or any of those other illnesses; if someone in your family has it you're at greater "risk." It's in the genes but you're not predetermined to get it, can't "blame" heredity for it (or you can but that doesn't get you to any better a place than blaming your parents for a rotten childhood).

[Raynaadi]

I think Perna summed it up perfectly. There are alcoholics I've met who can't trace in their bloodline, but how can we really know if someone in our bloodline in the 1800's was alcoholic before it was understood that alcoholism existed? Same with any other illness, like I have MS, and we can't find anyone in the family who has it, so is it hereditary? No one knows for sure.

[Raynaadi]

We've got two different topics here lol. Thought I'd address the "god" topic in a different post. When I came into AA, I didn't believe in anything. I had been constantly searching for something to believe in, but couldn't pick anything. I couldn't believe in a god who punished, like the what I had grown up with (catholic). I just couldn't wrap my mind around that. For awhile I had dappled in wicca but it was too structured, so then I considered myself pagan, believing in nature, or saying that I did....but I couldn't see how a tree was going to get me sober. Then I started working with a sponsor on the steps and she suggested that I call other sober women and see what their concept of a "higher power" was...it was then that I realized that they all had different concepts of a higher power, and that meant that I could custom build my own as well. I was so desparate to stop drinking that I decided that I would act "as if" and pray...to what I didn't know and still don't. Sometimes I think that my higher power or god as I call it because that seems to be the universal term for whatever it is, sometimes I think it's simply my conscience, the part of me that knows what the right answer is. Is it an all knowing entity? How am I to know? So sometimes I simply think it's the part of me that knows what the right course of action to take is. Sometimes I get a "feeling" to turn down a certain street instead of taking my normal route. It could be that I avoided an accident, it could just mean that I felt like going down that one route. I don't know. I don't know if there's really a higher power guiding my decisions. What I do is turn over any difficult decision or whatever to whatever...my conscience, a higher power...whatever. Just like I don't know why I'm an alcoholic whether it be hereditary or not, just like I can't see electricity but I know my lights go on when I flip the switch so I just trust it, just like I don't know why someone dies at 23...it just is. So I turn over my life every day to whatever, because it's worked for going on 21 months. I finally accepted that just because I don't understand why something works, doesn't mean I can't believe it. Like the fact that I'm not a physicist so I don't understand things that physicists understand, but I believe it when I see an airplane flying (is that even physics? lol...) LIfe is a mystery, everything is a mystery, the next 5 minutes is a mystery....will I win my match in my 8 ball league tonight? I don't know....will I stay sober tomorrow? I'm pretty sure I will but I don't know....will I die next week? I don't know...there's so much I can't know until it happens, will I find out if there's a god when I die? I don't know. Can I be willing to believe that there is? Sure, and most times I do, but like I said, sometimes I think it's just my conscience. I'm rambeling....but that's how it worked for me, the willingness to believe filled the void of alcohol, not the belief itself, because I'd be lying if I said I fully belived.

[biplol]

{{{{{{{{{{Raynaadi}}}}}}}}}}}}Thanks so much for your explanation, yes I know, I kinds messed the topic out, Sorry
But that is an insight I didn't have and it makes much sense.
Thanks again~

[okiedokie]

I certainly won't end the debate with this post, but I believe that there certainly is a genetic component to all addiction. I do think that the whole nurture vs. nature argument will continue and that's a good thing. I do believe that ETOH is just like any other drug and that it's probably not correct to put it in an addiction class all by itself. Regarding heredity, I have heard said, sarcastically of course, that addiction is the "gift that keeps on giving."
Okie

[Rhapsody]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Psyclox said:
I was just wondering is Alcoholism Hereditary?

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

The Role of Heredity in Alcoholism

Like many other diseases, alcoholism is influenced by both hereditary and
environmental factors that are being increasingly well defined. Experts
now believe that alcoholism arises from a wide range of physiological,
psychological, social and genetic factors.

Genetics

Alcoholism tends to run in families, and genetic factors partially
explain this pattern. Researchers are looking for the genes that
influence vulnerability to alcoholism. They are also exploring the
relationship between genetics and environment.

Genetic risk to alcoholism, however, is not destiny. A child of an
alcoholic parent will not automatically develop alcoholism, and a person
with no family history of alcoholism can become alcohol dependent.

Cont' the reading....
LINK: http://www.legacyaa.com/articles/heredity.htm

[Perna]

Did anyone read the new psychcentral news story?

http://psychcentral.com/news/2007/01...d-to-memories/

Very interesting, I think. Has me doing a little thinking how to rearrange some memories :-)

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
biplol said:
I have a quick question, and maybe that is one of the reason of me saying I don't agree with AA approach.
And please forgive me because I'm ignorant in this, I'm here trying to learn and not judging anybody, with that been said.
If you don't believe in God, How do you fill the empty spot that drugs/alcohol leave in you?
And is not that I don't believe, but I think there are a lot of people out there that don’t, so how do you get to the point were you feel complete without the addiction and at the same time it happens that you are not a believer?
I think you guys are doing great and whatever helps you stay sober is good.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

HI Bipol, I too struggled with this question when I first got sboer. I went to AA and the peer support and Identification were great at that time!...but as I got deeper into AA, well it never felt quite right for me...all these people wandering round in a pink haze of "god" and I didn't feel it...I eventually walked away AA with their stinging threats in my ears off "I will drink again and only meeting makers make it"...I had so much fear..BUT I've learnt that not only do I not need AA but I've found what it is that I do want to believe in and that is Myself!...I didnt want to put all my trust and energy into some outside force...I needed to get to know me...not some "god".....I didnt want to replace alcohol worship for some other kind of worship...its me that I struggle with...its me that I spend 24/7 with...learning about any "god" of any faith will only give me knowledge of that...not of who I am...I didnt want to parrott phrases repeated by many in meetings...I wanted to think for myself...unlike when I was drinking I would believe in whatever the next drunk believed in...I wanted that sense of self..the one I had been trying to drown in alcohol...i was looking for my sprit in a bottle of sprits...have I said to much? LOL I normally do LOL

[Raynaadi]

Haha I'm glad it makes sense...it's hard to convey my feelings of a higher power and whenever I share it in meetings I never know how it comes across. Lol...one time I shared that I pray as though my higher power were sitting right next to me and my friend leaned over and whispered "that's scizophrenia" hahaha imagine trying to continue sharing when someone says that.....haha!