My dad drank a lot but was not an alcoholic. He gave up drinking pretty much as soon as my mom died ( !
). Neither of his parents were alcoholics, but his half-brother was a gigantic alcoholic.
Neither my mom nor her siblings were alcoholics, but her dad was, big-time. He died when she was five; he climbed a tree while drunk and fell out and broke his back.
Only one of my five kids has followed in my alcoholic footsteps. Like me, he likes to daydream and "escape." When he got on his own, he drank microbrews to pass the time. I guess he thought the hoity-toitiness of microbrews provided legitimacy to his drunkenness.
He has given it up, though, I'm happy to say..