gneiss

I think the, "it runs in the family" thing hints at a genetic predisposition for chemical dependency. But the thing is, it's so behavioral. So I have a predisposition for it, but that still doesn't mean I have to use.

Also with behavioral stuff like drinking, I wonder how much of it is genetic and how much of it is learned. I really don't know the answer, perhaps someone else does. Seems to me if you grow up in a house with an alcoholic, you tend to think that behavior is normal and are more likely to perpetuate it. If your grandparents were but your parents aren't, their behavior is still affected by it, and it's likely to express itself in your upbringing somewhere, albeit in a much less direct manner. Does that make sense.

I'm starting to see this impact of how relationships are perpetuated, and not necessarily in regards to alcoholism. My mom and her sister aren't at all close. Christmas and birthday phone calls is about all they have to say to each other. So naturally I didn't know my aunt very well growing up even though she actually lived fairly close. So now I'm starting to get to know her and realizing that my mom and my aunt have the same relationship I have with my sister. It makes me wonder, basically that's the relationship my mom thinks is normal, so she would have raised my sister and I very much the way she and her sister were raised. So if you can engineer life-long sibling rivalry through upbringing, I wonder if you can engineer an alcoholic? Or at least someone who's thought patterns ran along the same lines, because that's what they were used to. And if someone with addictive thought patterns or behavior started drinking, would they be more likely to become addicted? I dunno, I'm kinda playing with ideas here. Seems the same as the disease model though: just because you're more likely to have a problem doesn't mean you can't choose to stop.