Genes
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Join Date: Feb 2020
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Genes
I was wondering if anyone knows anything about genetics or genes related to alcohol addiction. I guess what I mean to ask is do you think family history of alcoholism can affect ones ability to develop alcohol addiction or I should say more prone to develop alcohol addiction or dependency? Not that it matters in the sense of recovery or sobriety since anyone with an alcohol dependency going through recovery or rehabilitation wants to become sober regardless of the how or the why but it is interesting to know if family history can play a part in alcoholism.
The reason I ask is because I remember being told years ago that I need to be careful because I have a history of alcoholism in my family dating back to my grandfathers and that I need to watch out because of family genes.
One of my grandfathers came back from war an alcoholic. When I asked my grandmother about how bad it was she said that my grandfather was a pretty serious alcoholic in the past. I suppose when he was out fighting in the war his comrades drank together so they became alcoholics, I don't know. She said he was never violent or aggressive when he drank but would go to the local bar and become heavily intoxicated. Sometimes he would pass out on the front lawn or porch after a visit to the bar and sometimes she would have to send someone to go get him from the bar because he was too intoxicated to walk back home or he would just pass out halfway home on the street or sidewalk and she said she would send someone to find him. When I asked her how he got better she said a family member took him to a doctor and they gave him some sort of medicine or pill and said to him take this so you will feel what it is like if you drink again. And he felt very ill and she said it scared him and he never drank alcohol anymore. That and she said she threatened to leave him if he continued drinking heavily.
My other grandfather I remember when I was younger always seeing him drink beer. A lot of beer. And I remember always seeing beer cans everywhere. Lots of beer cans all over the place outside the house and inside the house. So many that I remember my grandmother always getting after him leaving empty beer cans and having to pick them up all of the time. So he was a heavy drinker I suppose just from what I remember of him with the amount of beer he drank and seeing big trash bags full of beer cans.
And I have a family member that died recently of liver complications from excessive drinking of many years.
I also have various other family members that have had issues with drinking alcohol excessively and still do.
And I wonder if maybe there is something there as far as my family history of alcoholism leading me to become an alcoholic. But either way sobriety is something to achieve regardless of whether family history or genes had anything to do with it but it just makes me wonder if maybe there is a link there somewhere between past family members that had issues with alcohol and myself developing this disease of alcohol addiction.
The reason I ask is because I remember being told years ago that I need to be careful because I have a history of alcoholism in my family dating back to my grandfathers and that I need to watch out because of family genes.
One of my grandfathers came back from war an alcoholic. When I asked my grandmother about how bad it was she said that my grandfather was a pretty serious alcoholic in the past. I suppose when he was out fighting in the war his comrades drank together so they became alcoholics, I don't know. She said he was never violent or aggressive when he drank but would go to the local bar and become heavily intoxicated. Sometimes he would pass out on the front lawn or porch after a visit to the bar and sometimes she would have to send someone to go get him from the bar because he was too intoxicated to walk back home or he would just pass out halfway home on the street or sidewalk and she said she would send someone to find him. When I asked her how he got better she said a family member took him to a doctor and they gave him some sort of medicine or pill and said to him take this so you will feel what it is like if you drink again. And he felt very ill and she said it scared him and he never drank alcohol anymore. That and she said she threatened to leave him if he continued drinking heavily.
My other grandfather I remember when I was younger always seeing him drink beer. A lot of beer. And I remember always seeing beer cans everywhere. Lots of beer cans all over the place outside the house and inside the house. So many that I remember my grandmother always getting after him leaving empty beer cans and having to pick them up all of the time. So he was a heavy drinker I suppose just from what I remember of him with the amount of beer he drank and seeing big trash bags full of beer cans.
And I have a family member that died recently of liver complications from excessive drinking of many years.
I also have various other family members that have had issues with drinking alcohol excessively and still do.
And I wonder if maybe there is something there as far as my family history of alcoholism leading me to become an alcoholic. But either way sobriety is something to achieve regardless of whether family history or genes had anything to do with it but it just makes me wonder if maybe there is a link there somewhere between past family members that had issues with alcohol and myself developing this disease of alcohol addiction.
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Join Date: Apr 2007
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Hi Mikoss 
some of us have alcoholism in the family tree and others don't which tends to suggest that there's not one right answer.
What I do know is we can stop...no matter if our tendency to abuse alcohol is genetic or a learned behaviour, or both.
We can stop
D
some of us have alcoholism in the family tree and others don't which tends to suggest that there's not one right answer.
What I do know is we can stop...no matter if our tendency to abuse alcohol is genetic or a learned behaviour, or both.
We can stop
D
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
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I do believe in the genetic component. Like Dee said, not everyone with it in our families becomes alcoholics and people w/o the history do.
But for me, yes, while "everyone" thought it was my brother who'd become the alcoholic/addict, so far it's just me. He's a heavy drinker, tho. We have a ton of alcoholism on my mother's side; barely any that we know of on my dad's, and any there was would be pretty far back.
Do I think that it's the "reason" I'm an alcoholic? Nope. I actually think that I would have a different diagnosis if alcohol hadn't entered the picture at all - I believe that the other huge component of my disease (and yes I view it as such) is the thinking, coping, etc that people talk about. I don't believe there's one single cause.
That said, like you mention, we talk to my stepkids about it. Both their parents are alcoholics, now sober. So while their parents didn't - and it does run in one/both fams - we feel it is very important. Not in a "don't drink" way, but in a this is how life and our journeys can go. I believe that acknowledging other things that often co-mingle w addiction, like depression or other mental illness, is important in the whole person view of this struggle.
But for me, yes, while "everyone" thought it was my brother who'd become the alcoholic/addict, so far it's just me. He's a heavy drinker, tho. We have a ton of alcoholism on my mother's side; barely any that we know of on my dad's, and any there was would be pretty far back.
Do I think that it's the "reason" I'm an alcoholic? Nope. I actually think that I would have a different diagnosis if alcohol hadn't entered the picture at all - I believe that the other huge component of my disease (and yes I view it as such) is the thinking, coping, etc that people talk about. I don't believe there's one single cause.
That said, like you mention, we talk to my stepkids about it. Both their parents are alcoholics, now sober. So while their parents didn't - and it does run in one/both fams - we feel it is very important. Not in a "don't drink" way, but in a this is how life and our journeys can go. I believe that acknowledging other things that often co-mingle w addiction, like depression or other mental illness, is important in the whole person view of this struggle.
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Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 2,426
I think there is a proven genetic factor that predisposes you to being an addict, but it certainly is not the end of the story. I know an addict with no other known addiction issue in either side of his family going back generations. Then there is my siblings and I - addiction rampant in both sides of the family going way back, and I am an addict and they are not. So you never know how this thing will creep up on you. It definitely doesn't discriminate and hits all segments alike - rich, poor, Trump, Bernie, happy, sad and silly - it can get to any of us is the thing to remember.
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,169
I believe it can be genetic, but I'm not sure if they found the gene. This gets into the nature or nurture debate, which is always dicey. In fact, it's always framed as one or the other when it comes to human behavior, and I think in most cases the correct answer is probably, "Both!" Or if you want to be clever, just answer, "Yes."
It does tend to run in families, but that really doesn't tell us the cause. In addition, studies put the incidence of alcohol in society high enough that it would be unusual if you didn't have an drunk uncle hidden away in the family tree.
It does tend to run in families, but that really doesn't tell us the cause. In addition, studies put the incidence of alcohol in society high enough that it would be unusual if you didn't have an drunk uncle hidden away in the family tree.
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Big City
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Genetics and the history of a family play a huge part in the complexes, habits, personality traits and obstacles that we each have to deal with in life. From alcohol abuse, to domestic violence, to just the simple ingrained behavior of procrastination and avoidance of one's emotions - genetics play a huge role. But that doesn't mean that each one of us doesn't have the capacity and the ability to break the chain in one's own life.
Certainly all of us have excuses as to why things are what they are on our lives. But the ability to break the chain is also there for us each to choose.
Certainly all of us have excuses as to why things are what they are on our lives. But the ability to break the chain is also there for us each to choose.
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Join Date: Apr 2014
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Posts: 1,132
Putting this in the perspective of what Dee said, "we can stop", there is a lot of research that seems to indicate there often is a genetic factor in all of this. They even seem to know what genes they think might be involved. This area interests me in the genetics involved in mental illness (I'm type II bipolar). Still, it doesn't matter about the genetics of mental illness when I am in a bad condition. I am treated for what I have now. Same for alcoholism. Treat for what you have now. The genetics thing is just interesting and fascinating to you and I, but nothing more. Treat what you have now with whatever works.
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Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 2,408
How or why I’m an alcoholic doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I totally accept what I am and choose to live in the solution. I actually have huge gratitude for my alcoholism so it needn’t be something which is a negative 🙏
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Join Date: Jan 2020
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Not sure that it's a genetic predisposition to being an alcoholic as much as there can definitely be a correlation with family history in terms of using alcohol or drugs from an early age to cope with lack of support, abuse, or other problems.
As to grandfather returning from war an alcohol, by the grace of God I can only speak from having researched the issue. May or may not have been the issue with your grandfather, but a problem is that a lot of combat veterans feel a tremendous amount of guilt at having survived when others that they knew did not. There may be a genetic predisposition towards feeling the guilt more intensely. As most of us here do know, turning to alcohol provides a way of coping with guilt.
As to grandfather returning from war an alcohol, by the grace of God I can only speak from having researched the issue. May or may not have been the issue with your grandfather, but a problem is that a lot of combat veterans feel a tremendous amount of guilt at having survived when others that they knew did not. There may be a genetic predisposition towards feeling the guilt more intensely. As most of us here do know, turning to alcohol provides a way of coping with guilt.
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Join Date: Oct 2018
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Posts: 517
There seems to be a lot of other things that come down the family line.
Balding is a classic example, a bald grandfather, 3 sons, only one son went bald, then those 3 sons have sons, two out of 6 go bald and there doesn't seem to be any predictability about it.
I don't know my family history, I was adopted, so knowing or not knowing if it came down a family line makes absolutely no difference to me.
I got it so I had to do something about it.
Balding is a classic example, a bald grandfather, 3 sons, only one son went bald, then those 3 sons have sons, two out of 6 go bald and there doesn't seem to be any predictability about it.
I don't know my family history, I was adopted, so knowing or not knowing if it came down a family line makes absolutely no difference to me.
I got it so I had to do something about it.
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Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
I believe in two components. I believe in a genetic marker that may predispose us to addiction. I ALSO strongly believe that environmental factors can influence one's propensity to addiction. For example, working in a bar. Joining a rowdy fraternity or sorority. Some construction/ blue collar outfits are heavy drinkers.
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: DFW area, Texas
Posts: 521
The nature / nuture issue is pretty fascinating and I remember it coming up a lot in the behavior sciences classes I took in college. It's definitely a tricky thing to say it's one or the other, although like others I think alcholism has both factors at work.
One of the best descriptions I heard that helped me understand things on nature or nuture was this:
Imagine you are in the shallow end of a pool that gradually slopes down towards the deep end. The pool and the level of the water is the nuture (environment) part of the equation. How tall you are is the nature part. Now in this instance a taller person can walk further into the deep end of the pool before the water gets over their head but eventually all are in over their heads.
So perhaps nature gives you an advantage or disadvantage, but you still chose how far to go with things and that can be based on your life experiences, etc.
Again this is a fascinating topic to me, and not just on the alcoholism front.
Thanks for the original post on the topic!
One of the best descriptions I heard that helped me understand things on nature or nuture was this:
Imagine you are in the shallow end of a pool that gradually slopes down towards the deep end. The pool and the level of the water is the nuture (environment) part of the equation. How tall you are is the nature part. Now in this instance a taller person can walk further into the deep end of the pool before the water gets over their head but eventually all are in over their heads.
So perhaps nature gives you an advantage or disadvantage, but you still chose how far to go with things and that can be based on your life experiences, etc.
Again this is a fascinating topic to me, and not just on the alcoholism front.
Thanks for the original post on the topic!
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 353
Thank so much everyone for the insight on the matter.
I love the analogy about the pool. For instance I like to read books on eating healthy and more now because I am trying to stay sober and in addition to that I want to eat healthier along with being sober and giving up drinking alcohol..
And one particular book that I read it talks about the links to sugar and foods that turn into sugar and how sugar is linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. And it talks about sugar affecting the leptin receptors in our brain that control hunger, metabolism, insulin, leptin, hormones, and many other things that lead to conditions like heart disease and cancer and so forth. And how cancer cells need sugar and normal body cells need oxygen. It was a very interesting book.
But my point was that the book talks about how a lot of people would say oh well I have a family history of diabetes or heart disease so I am just doomed from the start because I just have "bad" genes. And the book says this may not be entirely true. That through diet and certain choices we can lower our risk of certain conditions and diseases and be healthier.
Just like stopping drinking. By stopping alcohol intake we can become healthier so our body can heal and alcohol does turn into sugar in our bodies and sugar is the most highly addictive substance in the world and it's cheap, makes foods and beverages taste good, and highly addictive.
I know that the first time that I stopped drinking and tried a go at sobriety I tried to eat a healthy diet and avoid sugar intake as much as possible about 2 weeks into my stretch of sobriety. I can say that I was miserable just quitting drinking and when I tried to stop sugar intake I was even more miserable and depressed and just felt horrible. Maybe that is why I relapsed after a month, I don't know.
But back to the sugar topic and remembering a video link that Derringer gave me a link to about Eric Clapton and his struggle with alcohol and substance use, Eric Clapton mentioned sugar.
Eric said that before his alcohol use and drug use, he was already conditioned to use substances when he first got a taste of sugar as a young boy between 5-6 years old. He said it was a post-war thing where they would put sugar in the bread and butter as a treat or put sugar in milk so kids would drink it. But Eric said he was ingesting as much sugar as he could possibly swallow just because he liked the way that it would make him feel. He said that is probably what got him conditioned to later abuse alcohol and drugs like heroin and cocaine and codeine and Valium and so forth. Just that first feeling as a young boy of using a substance as simple as sugar to chemically alter the way he felt. Then later moving up to heavy alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
Then we go to the conditioned part. I have a friend who is now deceased due to many years of heavy drinking and drug use that he stopped and later relapsed and then lived a short while after his relapse until he died from complications that were linked to very heavy drinking of basically a bottle of vodka a day or more for 30 years . He would tell me stories about how in school as a young boy they had a police officer or somebody give the talk at the school about alcohol and drugs to warn kids of the dangerous of drinking and doing drugs. And he said they showed the classic picture of "Johnny" as he said it, with a happy family and so forth and then show a picture of "Johnny" after drugs and alcohol where he is homeless on a street corner with a bottle of booze in his hand. Just to shock kids and not do drugs or alcohol. And the officer brings various drugs and shows the kids and tells them this drug does this and this drug does that and more pictures of people to shock the kids. Anyways he said most all of the kids were scared and when the teacher asked the class to raise their hands of who will never do alcohol and drugs all the kids raise their hands. And he told me he was the one kid who stood up and said, "I want to hang out with Johnny and drink alcohol with him and I want all of those drugs up there. I want to try them all."
And just that alone saying something like that at a young age, I wonder if he was just already wired for a life of addiction of alcohol and drugs. Which he abused for many years. So much that he said his father would always say, "I tell you, that boy is going to end up dead in a ditch one day." Which he almost did on several occasions he said.
The stories he told me of drinking and drugs were just chilling and horrifying and so sad.
And just from him, and seeing myself, and other stories here, and even my own family members I have to wonder if there is a link.
But aside from all of that is just to recognize that I had a problem with alcohol and that I need to remain sober despite where this addiction came from or started.
Originally Posted by Plure 
The nature / nuture issue is pretty fascinating and I remember it coming up a lot in the behavior sciences classes I took in college. It's definitely a tricky thing to say it's one or the other, although like others I think alcholism has both factors at work.
One of the best descriptions I heard that helped me understand things on nature or nuture was this:
Imagine you are in the shallow end of a pool that gradually slopes down towards the deep end. The pool and the level of the water is the nuture (environment) part of the equation. How tall you are is the nature part. Now in this instance a taller person can walk further into the deep end of the pool before the water gets over their head but eventually all are in over their heads.
So perhaps nature gives you an advantage or disadvantage, but you still chose how far to go with things and that can be based on your life experiences, etc.
Again this is a fascinating topic to me, and not just on the alcoholism front.
Thanks for the original post on the topic!
One of the best descriptions I heard that helped me understand things on nature or nuture was this:
Imagine you are in the shallow end of a pool that gradually slopes down towards the deep end. The pool and the level of the water is the nuture (environment) part of the equation. How tall you are is the nature part. Now in this instance a taller person can walk further into the deep end of the pool before the water gets over their head but eventually all are in over their heads.
So perhaps nature gives you an advantage or disadvantage, but you still chose how far to go with things and that can be based on your life experiences, etc.
Again this is a fascinating topic to me, and not just on the alcoholism front.
Thanks for the original post on the topic!
And one particular book that I read it talks about the links to sugar and foods that turn into sugar and how sugar is linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. And it talks about sugar affecting the leptin receptors in our brain that control hunger, metabolism, insulin, leptin, hormones, and many other things that lead to conditions like heart disease and cancer and so forth. And how cancer cells need sugar and normal body cells need oxygen. It was a very interesting book.
But my point was that the book talks about how a lot of people would say oh well I have a family history of diabetes or heart disease so I am just doomed from the start because I just have "bad" genes. And the book says this may not be entirely true. That through diet and certain choices we can lower our risk of certain conditions and diseases and be healthier.
Just like stopping drinking. By stopping alcohol intake we can become healthier so our body can heal and alcohol does turn into sugar in our bodies and sugar is the most highly addictive substance in the world and it's cheap, makes foods and beverages taste good, and highly addictive.
I know that the first time that I stopped drinking and tried a go at sobriety I tried to eat a healthy diet and avoid sugar intake as much as possible about 2 weeks into my stretch of sobriety. I can say that I was miserable just quitting drinking and when I tried to stop sugar intake I was even more miserable and depressed and just felt horrible. Maybe that is why I relapsed after a month, I don't know.
But back to the sugar topic and remembering a video link that Derringer gave me a link to about Eric Clapton and his struggle with alcohol and substance use, Eric Clapton mentioned sugar.
Eric said that before his alcohol use and drug use, he was already conditioned to use substances when he first got a taste of sugar as a young boy between 5-6 years old. He said it was a post-war thing where they would put sugar in the bread and butter as a treat or put sugar in milk so kids would drink it. But Eric said he was ingesting as much sugar as he could possibly swallow just because he liked the way that it would make him feel. He said that is probably what got him conditioned to later abuse alcohol and drugs like heroin and cocaine and codeine and Valium and so forth. Just that first feeling as a young boy of using a substance as simple as sugar to chemically alter the way he felt. Then later moving up to heavy alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
Then we go to the conditioned part. I have a friend who is now deceased due to many years of heavy drinking and drug use that he stopped and later relapsed and then lived a short while after his relapse until he died from complications that were linked to very heavy drinking of basically a bottle of vodka a day or more for 30 years . He would tell me stories about how in school as a young boy they had a police officer or somebody give the talk at the school about alcohol and drugs to warn kids of the dangerous of drinking and doing drugs. And he said they showed the classic picture of "Johnny" as he said it, with a happy family and so forth and then show a picture of "Johnny" after drugs and alcohol where he is homeless on a street corner with a bottle of booze in his hand. Just to shock kids and not do drugs or alcohol. And the officer brings various drugs and shows the kids and tells them this drug does this and this drug does that and more pictures of people to shock the kids. Anyways he said most all of the kids were scared and when the teacher asked the class to raise their hands of who will never do alcohol and drugs all the kids raise their hands. And he told me he was the one kid who stood up and said, "I want to hang out with Johnny and drink alcohol with him and I want all of those drugs up there. I want to try them all."
And just that alone saying something like that at a young age, I wonder if he was just already wired for a life of addiction of alcohol and drugs. Which he abused for many years. So much that he said his father would always say, "I tell you, that boy is going to end up dead in a ditch one day." Which he almost did on several occasions he said.
The stories he told me of drinking and drugs were just chilling and horrifying and so sad.
And just from him, and seeing myself, and other stories here, and even my own family members I have to wonder if there is a link.
But aside from all of that is just to recognize that I had a problem with alcohol and that I need to remain sober despite where this addiction came from or started.
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Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,583
I don't know. I am alcoholic but my parents aren't. Neither were their parent, my grandparents. I don't know any further than that. If my great grandparents were for example. However I do have a daughter, she is only 7 and a half at the minute but sometimes I do worry about whether she may have inherited something from me. However, thanks to my recovery programme I try to stay in this day only and she isn't an alcoholic today so I will deal with that when and if it happens lol
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