Originally Posted by
Whodathunk 
...it seems that there does seem to be a pattern of alcoholics and abusers of anything (drugs, food, weight loss, body issues, working out) having trauma in their early childhood or adolescent years.
I'm sure there is some truth to the trauma/addiction connection, but I feel it is a generalization.
Like Scott, I had, by all accounts, a
normal childhood. Yet I am a drug addict and alcoholic. None of my four sisters are.
My wife was sexually abused by her father. She has all kinds of problems...PTSD and the like, but drinking and drugging isn't one of them.