My ex husband is an alcoholic. He is literally drinking himself to death. His grandfather was an alcoholic. He spent his days sitting on the bar stool. He was one of those who made the decision to quit and did. That was that. His son, my ex father in-law remembers his father's behavior and vowed never to touch alcohol and to this day has never touched the stuff. Interesting...if he had, would he too be an alcoholic? Grandfather to grandson while skipping a generation due to the choice to not drink.
For myself, I think I always had tendencies. Even as a child I noticed a certain amount of "discontent" and often turned to food. When I took my first drink, WOW, this was amazing and from that day forward I lived for the next drink and I hit it hard when I could. That was when I was a teenager. I always loved to drink. Loved it to much to be considered normal.
Over the years it progressed and I turned into a full blown alcoholic who became a drinking machine. I lived to drink and drank to function while slowly killing myself and destroying the life I built. Once I got the booze from my system and worked on the reasons why I turned to alcohol, as a coping mechanism, I haven't had the desire to drink.
However, I am still extremely obsessive compulsive and have to keep an eye on that. I will use shopping in the same way that I drank. There is something within me that won't keep my brain on an even keel. When I get on to something, I want to run with it to the point of becoming ridiculous. The good news is...having 30 eye shadows or 30 lipsticks isn't going to kill me. I like to refer to it as being prepared and having a life time supply. You just never know...