amirose

I'm wondering if everyone here has someone in their family tree with addiction issues? I feel really weird when I think about the fact that according to my parents, they don't know of a SINGLE alcoholic or addict in our family. Ever.

amirose

Except me, of course!

Nallabelle

Well i think people have a tendency to blame the ol' "grandpa was an alcoholic so thats why i am one" excuse. There is no doubt though that addictive tendencies and brains are inherited much like depression or anything else. In addition to genetics, environment plays a large role. Nature vs Nurture. Problem with that is, if your mom was an alcoholic and also raised you, is it the nature or the nurture to blame if you, too become an alcoholic...? What came first the chicken or the egg.
The fact though that no one in your family has addictive issues means one of two things: #1 it isnt always genetic and #2 just because they arent addicted to mind altering chemicals, doesnt mean that they couldnt have been. Perhaps they did not act on their addictive impulses.
My granfather was a major lush and so is my cusion. Im just a pill popper.

change4penny

I come from a long line of alcoholics...both of my parents and both grandfathers and various aunts and uncles & cousins from both sides. My childhood was pretty bad and I swore I'd never drink, and I didn't...but I did become severely addicted to opiates and cocaine, from which i'm recovering now, 169 days clean. I have a very addictive personality and that's what I believe I inherited, so I obstain from alcohol, cause that just one more addiction waiting to happen!

windysan

I got a bunch of crazies on my mama's side. My mom is sane, her mom was sane, but before that there were some loonies for sure.

Latte

I don't blame my family at all, but I do recognize it.

I have a double whammy nurture and nature and all that. I was adopted and my birthfather was an alcoholic/addict etc., my adoptive father is an active alcoholic. My birthmothers family have mental health issues (my birthmother is not an alcoholic or an addict but is dependent on opiates due to cancer etc.). I am clean and sober now and have had gastric bypass to fight the obesity issues that have been prevalent in my family of origin.

I talk to my children about all of this in an age appropriate manner, education is the best tool.

Dime

I am a standout also. Parents and siblings unaffected, my children are all adults and none of them are afflicted. I only can find a couple of alcoholics (one addict) in a massive amount of relatives. I had very normal healthy upbringing with no environmental reasons. It took me many, many years before I crossed the line into alcoholism. When it happened there was nothing I could do to stop it until I got help through AA.

LowBottom

Sometimes ADDICTION manifests itself in other things. If they never picked up then of course the dis-ease cannot show it's ugly head as being a drug addict or alcoholic.

Is anyone in your family Fat? Could it be overeating? Does anyone smoke? Eat too much chocolate? Does anyone shop way too much? Could it be shopping? Does anyone gamble a lot? Could it be gambling? Usually you can find somewhere else that the dis-ease manifests itself in our family members.

I know that scientist have concluded that alcoholism is a disease and they believe that it does run in families.

I am (was) a hope to die dope fiend however my parents didn't drink, smoke, curse, drug but..... they never picked up either. But their parents did.... One grandpa died drunk on a train track and they other stopped drinking once he had a heart attack and got to pop pills.

Most importantly to me is... I know I have a disease and I know that I can't use successfully and I KNOW that the 12 Steps have saved me from myself, sometimes in spite of myself - and truthfully that is all I need to know - for me.

shockozulu

One parent that was an addict. That is it. No one else - except me. No over-eaters, they all quit smoking when they wanted to without a problem (I'm so jealous) and didn't exhibit any other types of problems. My grandmother had a case of nerves after the birth of her first child, but would visit her sisters and come back just fine.

When my mother first came down with her addiction, no one in our family had any idea how to deal with it. My great-aunt opened up her checkbook and offered to pay for Betty Ford with half her retirement money if my mother would simply just choose to admit she had a problem.

My grandfather, grandmother and I used to brainstorm for hours trying to figure out where the hell it came from, and finally realized it didn't matter.

JustAYak

Same here Alera, my dad was an addict, other than that, no one else.
Now I'm the only one left.

amirose

Interesting to think about...my family is so conservative probably no one ever picked up. I had never thought of it that way! My father, grandfather,and uncles are all doctors. Lots of OCD and workaholics. Not really overweight, more to the other extreme of exercising obsessively....and I've teetered on the edge of a full blown eating disorder during periods of my life when I was not using the opiates.

Dime

LowBottom has an excellent point! A couple of my children were borderline anoxeric and had compulsive behavior issues.

Timebuster

I can say this. None of my parents drank or abused drugs. But being in recovery and using the rooms and working the program. I can tell you this. My parents are very dysfunctional and much in denial with what is going on in there life’s. Anger and resentments with my parents. Lets not even go there.


Ivan

Stagebear

Dad was an alkie, mom went along for the ride.
Sister is a food addict and raging codie, Brother is just raging.
I'm the only one that ever really found recovery. Sis thinks she has but all of her issues remain unchecked.
Family tree...one loose acorn...

emmer

addiction issues in the family tree ?? Yep, on both sides. Gambling, drinking, drugs, sex.....

Sounds like a trip to Vegas, don't it? lol
I'm the only one in the family, who's sought recovery that I know of.

SonofaMess

Going back in my family through about 6 generations there were plenty of normal and "not normal" people. Plenty of alcoholics and depress cases with anger issues. Plenty of 6-10 sibling families.....Sometimes half the kids were messed up and the other half were fine........And sometimes all of the kids ended up fine with no problems of any kind of addiction or other wise.

Some issues can be hereditary yes. But from my experience and observations majority of the time it's the environment and how a child is raised that depicts their addiction or lack there of.

The " my mom/dad grandma/grandpa was an alcoholic/addict so I can't help it " really upsets me sometimes. Especially when it's doctors and social counselors and etc that say that. It's not that cut and dry.

If you take a child from 2 perfect parents whose parents were perfect and so on and so on for the last 100 years, and leave him in a crack house or an alcoholics house to be raised by whomever......They are probably going to have a greater chance of addiction problems. Why? Because of the environment. Clearly.

Unfortunately that notion of "It's in my DNA I can't help it" holds several people back from really helping themselves. People who get that thought out of their head don't struggle half as much.

amirose

My sisters and my brother have no addiction issues that I know of...and we all live near each other so I'm thinking if there was a problem with one of them I would probably know. Out of the 4 of us, at least so far--just me.