oldsoul1122

Some of my relatives were drinkers but not my parents or 5 siblings. A couple of siblings married alcoholics and the others have a drug of choice like food and hoarding. Anyway the first time I tasted alcohol was when I was babysitting at 13 and dipped my finger into a bottle of whiskey and I felt "ok and normal" for the first time. Later at 16 I seriously started drinking and was addicted immediately.

ScottFromWI

I'm not sure it really matters to me, I AM and alcoholic so I have to accept it whether it was predetermined or not.

Mountainmanbob

I think that my alcoholism was brought on by a "self-fulfilling prophecy"

drinking a quart of Bud every day after school for many years
while smoking everything that I could get my lips on
and eating little colorful things

yes, I think that I played a major part in what happened in the end

a drunkard that also did many other things that were bad for him
can blame no one other than himself

MM

whalebelow

I believe it was just a matter of time before I lit my fuse.

I was fascinated by booze before I drank it. I loved the cool & manly looking labels on the bottles. I collected soft drink cans at first, before losing interest and switching to beer cans.

I noticed when Dad and his mates had a few beers, they became more animated and laughed more.

First opportunity, age 10, me and two other kids got hold of some beer and decided to be be like our dad's, one kid drank two glasses, said it was making him feel sick, he stopped, other kid, drank a few more with me, then he realised he was getting drunk, he stopped. I carried on and on, they had to take any unopened beers away from me, and carry me home later that day.

Dad looked at me staggering in the driveway and said "get into bed before ya mother sees ya"
Then told me how sick I was going to be, I hopped out of bed next day box of fluffy ducks. Dad couldn't believe it. Copped a few lectures from mum and dad.

2 years later I was kicked out of scouts for taking a bottle of rum on a camp.

SoberLife2014

I don't know. My parents are both alcoholics, or at least heavy drinkers. Allegedly my great uncle on my dad's side was an alcoholic. For some reason my paternal grandpa was banned from drinking by my grandma. My sister never liked to drink. My brother drank heavily until he got married and had kids. Then there was me. Full blown alcoholic.

I drank a lot when I was a teenager too. I think I was about 13 or 14 when I had my first beer. I never could control myself when I started. I just drank and drank and drank until I passed out. Then I quit for several years. When I started up again I found out that if I only had 3 beers, I didn't get a hangover. It was downhill from there.

Doesn't much matter anyway. Predestined or not, I know I can't touch the stuff.

dwtbd

My first experience with alcohol was drinking to the point of blackout, so I think I set the bar pretty high for what I considered "enough" from that point on. Weekend binger all through high school(except when I would be "grounded" for weeks on end ) and then right back to the races. College lasted for a semester , too much opportunity for daily drinking and drugs.
Spent the few years blasted and then for whatever reasons started to slow down, not much but enough to find a wonderful woman and eventually marry her. Not sure how/why but my drinking slowed to nearly nonexistent for a few years, a sign of maturity perhaps, the kids were born recognizing the need to be responsible. At the time it didn't seem to be that difficult , it just seemed reasonable that getting that drunk that often was not a good idea any longer.
At some point drinking started to creep back in, drinking to my fill was then best done after everyone was asleep. Over the years there were times weddings, vacations ect where drunken embarrassing situations happened , but that seemed to me to just try harder to not let that kind of thing happen ,in public. So I think I just got better at waiting for the world to not be watching when I drank the way I wanted to, of course except those times when I didn't . I just thought I could keep that up forever , I guess, and I did , until I couldn't.
Drinking like that for as long as I did can't just keep going, the progression of the abuse starting setting in and for awhile I let it, until I couldn't.
I'm done, finally had enough.

Mountainmanbob

Saying that someone was destined to be alcoholic

Is like saying that someone was destined to be a murderer

Maybe a possibility ???

MM

ESD907

I think its very possible for someone to be destined for murder. But the same questions arise. Were they born with that in their brains? or was it the environment? or a bit of both. The older I get, the more I learn to say "never say never". I don't think I'm immune to anything in life any longer. I believe I'm capable of every/anything. Good or Bad. Just not likely to be anything too bad, but you never know, in the right (wrong) circumstances, who the heck knows.

Lovenjoy

i wonder about this myself. no conclusions, just know i can't drink. father, uncle, grandmother all alcoholics. hints at many more in the family tree. and out of 8 of us kids, 6 of us are alcoholics. genetics or early childhood chaos? i'd say both probably.

FeenixxRising

I'm not sure if I was genetically predisposed. My paternal grandfather was an alcoholic, but he quit when he was middle-aged; his son, my father was a binge drinker who never did quite quit. In my mid-40's I developed a binge drinking pattern similar to my father, but I had previously been able to drink mostly in moderation and without consequences (save a few hangovers) for ~ 30 years (I took my first at ~ age 14). As far as I know, neither my father or grandfather were able to drink in moderation when they drank.

That's it for problem drinkers in my family. Everyone else does not drink or can drink in moderation. With the exception of my father and grandfather, I've never seen any other blood relative intoxicated).

Personally, I don't really think about it. I don't believe I'm "destined" to be anything other than what I want to be.

whalebelow

Alcoholism is different though. Has anyone ever shot someone else in the head, blowing their brains out and then thought if they did that again, the results might be different?

Much of my career as a drinker was just that "it's going to be different this time, tonight I am going to have enough to get that lovely warm glow, then I'm going to stop at that"

Arbor

I don't believe much in destiny. I'm a product of my surroundings mind wise. Its all behavioral. Yeah I could drink more than the rest, but I wanted to. Freshstart means well with what he writes. It really sounds like you grew up with alcohol as an influence. Behavior that was learned and believed. Changing our beliefs with positivity and strong reinforcement makes way for change. Thanks for sharing your story.

lebroncavs

Both of my parents have an addictive personality. Did that mean I would become an alcoholic for sure? No but there was a very good chance of it.

Foolsgold186

I grew up in a loving non-alchoholic home. 2 older sisters who can take or leave booze.

I Started drinking at 14 and by 19 I was blackout drinking. By 34 I was drinking everyday.

My alcoholism is my doing. I truly believe that, it's in my makeup and it's my story. I actually used to wish I had a horrific childhood to make what I was doing easier to live with - how sad is that!

Ifnotforgrace

"Our drinking was but a symptom" BB of AA

Alcoholism and other addictions are the result of a spiritual void which we attempt to inappropriately fill. Yes there are addictive substances and behaviors (video gaming/porn) are two of them and all addictions are progressive-but we can decide to choose recovery and work a program and live a fruitful purpose driven life. Millions of chronic sufferers have done it. You can too

GracieLou

I honestly believe I was born an alcoholic, I just didn’t drink like one until I had the first real access to it.

My parents would give me sips of an alcoholic drink on holidays. Christmas and New Years. That never seemed to effect me.

But camping at age 13 when I was had access to drinking straight whiskey from a bottle, that was it. I got drunk, blacked out and passed out. I drank it like water. I did not get sick. I liked the taste and the effect.

I didn’t let loose until I was nineteen but that was because of fear. Fear of being an alcoholic like my brother and then after he took his own life the fear was just impressed upon me again. Fear only lasts so long for this alcoholic. At nineteen the fear I once had was gone. I forgot about it completely. I never once looked back and compared myself to him.

Looking back at the first time I drank, I drank alcoholically. I have no doubts I am an alcoholic and I was born an alcoholic.

Being sober, attending AA meetings, working the 12 steps and continuing to practice them did not turn me into a non-alcoholic. I am still an alcoholic, inside and out but I have learned to accept it and to live a sober life despite it.

Mountainmanbob

a lot of career criminals think that way
upon release from prison they say that "they will never come back"
yet, more than 1/2 do

????? I don't know for sure - but - makes for some deep thinking here

thank you

MM

xJustBreathex

I grew up with nobody in my immediate family having any addiction of any sort, but little did I know growing up (my family is very strange and secretive to the extreme) that I had an alcoholic grandfather and my moms twin brothers were addicts. I have no idea about my fathers side of the family. In my heart I believe that yes... I was destined to be an alcoholic. When I think back on it today, I whole heartedly believed I was an alcohol from the very first drink. The gene or bug or whatever you want to call it was in me, it was present in my behavior long before the first drink and it was me and me alone that made the choice to activate it. Without knowing the consequences of course. *sigh* If I knew then what I know now...

ESD907

See, thats my thoughts exactly. I thought almost no matter what, it was going to happen. But, my eyes have opened a bit to other possibilites now, but I still feel strongly about this pre determined thing. DO I think if I truly understood all this earlier I would've curtailed it ? I don't know. If I'm buying into this predetermined, I'd say no. I guess its like the women who get tested for the breast cancer gene. They know they have a better likelyhood, but? do they then have surgery prior to getting cancer? do they live as healthy a lifestyle as possible, and then i the end, they still get the cancer?

I think its the chicken/egg thing all over again.

RobbyRobot

I think my alcoholism is a direct result of my life choices and my environment firstly. Secondly, I think my physiological experiences with alcohol completed the deal in creating my alcoholism illness.

I don't believe I was destined, but at some point I passed the line of no return in my drinking. I don't believe I was born alcoholic. I also don't believe I would have chosen differently before I began my drinking career even if I had known the consequences before hand. Alcohol for me when I started drinking was more helpful than harmful. I was convinced early on I had found something in alcohol which really helped me be anything other than myself, which being myself was the last thing I wanted when I drank.

I take responsibility for creating my own alcoholism illness and yet, I don't regret my choices to do so in the face of the dysfunctional early life I had. Alcohol likely saved my life. Until it didn't of course. Eventually alcohol wanted back whatever it had ever gave to me, which at the time was a better lived life. All delusion of course, but I believed it real enough. It all came crashing down and it was either quit or eventually die drunk.

I suppose the only way I could believe I was destined to be an alcoholic would be that I was also destined to be a sober alcoholic too. In any case, I don't believe much in destiny, so I'm likely bias on answering the question.