Well I’m not sure about a genetic predisposition, but yes both of my parents were alcoholics. I think the biggest difference that made for me was that excessive alcohol use was a “norm” in my home growing up. Starting around 16 I was drinking in my home and with my parents even. So I guess the environment feels like it had a huge impact on my inability to recognize the issue in my behavior. Also, between growing up that way then joining the Army early on, I was surrounded by people that drank heavily constantly and like I said …excessive drinking was ok, accepted, and in many cases glorified.
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I’m impressed too. There’s a lot of insight here.
You ask really interesting questions Hollz. You have an observant mind. Add that to the list of qualities you pass to your daughter. I’m sure she’ll be exactly like all your good qualities 
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My drinking started way too young and honestly it felt at first like an expectation. It was largely environmental. My dad and his dad always boasted about how “we’re german, and germans drink” and would make jokes to people claiming our family name translates to “guzzle.” My grandpa had me making gin and tonics for him when I was 8 and encouraged me to drink a bit of each one so I would know how he likes it to make them better. My mom’s side is dominican and there was the expectation of late night parties with tequila shots. I remember at 10 sitting on top of a bunk bed with my cousins of the same age a bottle of tequila between the three of us.
I lived for a long time where being an alcoholic felt like a badge of honor and I handled large quantities of liquor with ease so no one even realized how much I was drinking. It eventually became a coping mechanism when I turned 18 and left for college and it spiraled out of control after that dealing with trauma.
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Well i think we learn from others like parents and friends parents or our environment. that makes it look normal and we just fall in like pawns. I think its more learned behavior to cope. U dont wanna feel or dont wanna give a fuck …we use and our wish is granted for a limited time. Like a genie in a bottle,pipe,or needle… we end up a product of our environment and that same thing is what brings sobriety changing our lives and environment. When wd gets in the mix of habitual use ur just a slave to it then and dependent.
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Here’s another thread with some great responses.
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I have several addicted relatives and bi-polar in the family. I was a non-drinker until I was 35 because of that. Then I drank socially. Then more and more to numb emotional pain. Now on I am over a year sober. It’s hard but therapy has helped me identify my emotional triggers for drinking. I’m not running anymore. So I think we can we can have a genetic propensity for addiction but don’t have to be trapped by it. Just my experience.
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Each side of my family has their fair share of alcoholic’s and drug user’s. So in a way, it was bound to happen to me. 95% of it was totally on me though. I started drinking young as well. Around 15/16-years-old.
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I think I was genetically predisposed through autism. A big part of my autism results in obsession. I must finish what I start. When I start building a Lego set, I have to finish, doesn’t matter if it takes 20 hours. Same with reading a book.
However that I’m genetically predisposed doesn’t mean I’m born an addict. Many people are genetically predisposed with cancer. Not all of them get it. It’s triggered somehow, I think. I don’t have a lot of knowledge of cancer.
Same way, my addiction was triggered through mental, emotional and physical abuse from my dad. I have been bullied for a long time and always by different people. As an emotionally diverse person I was unable to cope properly, which triggered the addiction.
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Alcoholism is in my mother and father’s side but they weren’t. Brothers and sisters not alcoholic. I was always an odd child though. Sensitive stubborn often paranoid that I wasn’t like my cousin’s. Usually panicky in social situations but ok 1 to 1. Smart at books but lazy as fuck.
Fairly strick upbringing so always felt pressure to be a good boy…
When drink came on the scene all my pent up inhibitions were lifted from me and I really felt brilliant… this is what it’s like to be confident an fun.
I think it was in me the whole time, and don’t know if my upbringing played any part in it developing.
One thing I’m sure of is that it’s part of me now and always will be.
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Thanks for posting that video. It really helped me just now to make sense of my relapses. To understand why my will power sometimes fails me.
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I came from a house where alcohol and abuse was the norm and promised myself I would never drink when I was a kid bc I saw the damage it can do BUT turned out that shit was fun and it didn’t have to end up hurting people everytime I drank so why not enjoy it. 30 plus years of drink and drugs and never had a problem until the day I wanted to stop, then I looked back and saw for the first time the trail of destruction in other people’s lives I had left. Personally I think we’re just built different.
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I’m convinced I was always destined to have a bad relationship with alcohol. Alcoholism is on both sides of my family. My Grand Father on my dads side was a chronic alcoholic, my dad is, and my grandmother on my mum’s side died from alcoholism. Both my brother and I now seem to be. The one difference though, I’m working on changing that for me and hopefully for my children! 
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My parents were alcoholics to the point of sloppy. I always hated it . I drank young and hated it. Once i started getting into harder drugs and pills . I never hardly would drink after that. So my doc kinda came from the environment i was in not that i copied my parents addiction. Things like Alzheimer’s, cancer, or mental illness can be hereditary. So if its hereditary thats debatable since mental illness kinda leads to that behavior. Is it a disease? No most things other then alcohol can be cured will no drugs just will power to do it …
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You do realise that mental health, alcoholism, drug addiction has all been genetically linked. So no it’s not about people not talking responsibility, it’s about discussing addiction in a bigger picture.
I’m new to sobriety and TS and you don’t know my story or me. I’m more then accountable and I chose to stay sober. I asked a question… if you have a issue with my question you can very easily skip to the next thread … thanks
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So my parents were both raging alcoholics. Drank from dusk tilll dawn. I never didnt see them without a drink going at any given time.
I started drinking at 12. Hard partying style drinking. I drank from 12 till age 30, when I discovered meth. I then kinda stopped drinking in my 30s, but then every time I tried to get clean, the second I had one glass of red wine, I get on , and the vicious circle repeated its self, till I really got clean in 2020.
So my answer to your question is, I’m not sure.
I know my own choices led me to a decade long meth addiction, my parents never touched drugs at all, they only drank. So I know my meth addiction is from my choices and mine alone.
Ultimately, I think our choices led us to our own individual addictions.
But as @Mno said, we live in the now. So I never really think about my past in that manner of reflection…
I have only now. I have only today. And that’s what I think about 
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Dont be sorry for asking a very valid question hun!
That’s what our community is here for. To learn and support each other 
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Thank you @apes2020 . And I am j just getting interested in the generic or not I guess what caused me to become a alcoholic and my cousin to be hooked on heroin and lose her life we came from the same genetic background but we weren’t raised around hard drugs smh I guess it really doesn’t matter apparently I’m not taking personal responsibility for my shit so I think I’m just going to stay to myself for awhile. but really thank you
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