Originally Posted by
Jazzman 
As a teenager my father was the "nasty drunk" and could clear a room in a heartbeat with nasty mean, hateful comments.
It makes ya wonder why a person can be one kind of drunk or another...when my father would occassionally drink too much, he usually got all sentimental and would call me up and be all icky sweet, while my ADP's FA father (Lawyer/Judge) would beat the living hell out of him and his brothers and his A mother (RN) would instigate those very beatings. She was a nasty drunk as well, so you can imagine what life was like for those kids with 2 nasty and abusive parents. And yet, my ADP is the only one of them who became a drunk and while not exactly a slacker, he didn't excel in life the way the rest of his siblings (4 others) did. None of them turned out to be A's and all are professionals. He had told me that after one severe beating, things just changed for him in his head, he no longer cared about getting good grades or making something of himself. Maybe that's just a way of rationalizing but maybe not.