How Many branches of your family tree

Old 02-23-2006, 02:51 PM
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How Many branches of your family tree

are alcoholics? Does this worry you about your children becoming addicted?
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Old 02-23-2006, 02:57 PM
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lots.
lots
lots.
Im very concerned in fact. I dont have children, but my side alone is
packed with them.
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Old 02-23-2006, 03:08 PM
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Both of my parents are alcoholics. I know on my dad's side, there were/are some cousins of his that are. On my mom's side, I'm not sure. There is at least one I can think of. No children yet, but I'm sure I'll worry about it.

May be I never had a chance.....
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Old 02-23-2006, 03:08 PM
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None

I am the first in my family. And no, I don't say that proudly.
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Old 02-23-2006, 03:08 PM
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4 children. 4 of them if they have one, they will have 12.
One doesn't drink but maybe once a year. Two will drink about every other weekend. One will drink 28 out of 30 days.
Why worry? Educate as best you can and they will do as they want.
Alcohol in the tree or a dry tree... if they are going to drink, they take the risk. I can't stop them. It comes down to what choices they make after they are educated to the risks that could be ahead.
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Old 02-23-2006, 03:11 PM
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My dad has been sober for 35ish something years (since before he married my mom). I remember growing up that it was never a secret. We were told that dad was an alcoholic and that it could be inherited so to be careful.

I've known I had a problem with alcohol since I was 14 or 15.
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Old 02-23-2006, 03:32 PM
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My father..not sure if he's alki, but he was always drunk
My mother re-married my step father.
Not sure his alki, he still drinks like a fish, has classic behaviors
of and alki. He drank lots and lots, gallons of wine everyday as
far as I can remember. My mother of course dose everything
to the book as a co-dependcy would do. Don't get dad angery.
Growning up in that enviorment was that of trying to walk
through egg shells spear all over, God forbid if I should step on
an eggshell. Just the other day the man came home drunk
and looked at me, if I was the most worthless piece of ****
that ever lived. God forgive me for being alive.

My nephew and neices currently live with my parents.
Everyone of the childred all suffers mental and emotional turtore
as I did. All suffers from depression and react in verious ways.
It's like looking at myself in the mirror.
I try to pass on recovery tools as much as I can to the children.
My 15 year old neice broke into tears..perhapes just for the first
time in her life. Someone an adult listen to her.
My 18 year old niece went through a stage of cutting herself.
Yet the whole time everybody told her there's was something
wrong with her. I spent time with her ...listen. Share my ESH
of how it was for me to live under that type of dictatorship.
It was like I was telling her story or experience.
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Old 02-23-2006, 04:01 PM
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Both of my Grandfathers were. I can't recall my one Grandpa drinking - I think he may have stopped before I was born. He was diagnosed as bipolor shortly before he died though which helps to explain his behaviour.
My brother is an alcoholic. As well as one uncle and one cousin.
If there are more, I am unaware of it.
On my ah's side, I think there are quite a few. I don't know many of them and don't know them well but from of the stories I've heard as well as knowing that many of them still drink quite a bit, I think they drink too much even if they aren't alcoholics.
Yes, I do worry about my kids. I have talked to them and tried to educate them and warned them about the risks and how it's even higher for them. Having grown up with their father, they all are pretty anti-drinking. They are teenagers now so only the future will really tell. I just hope that they hold strong to the way they feel now as they can see how it's destroys people's lives.
On a sidenote to that, I worry also about their emotional wellbeing due to the fact that they didn't have a great role model for how relationships and love are supposed to be. I worry about them emulating what they saw growing up between ah and I. I've seen some of that codependancy in my oldest son. That worries me as well.
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Old 02-23-2006, 04:38 PM
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Mother and father are alcoholics.

My only child is an alcoholic.

I have a deep hatred for alcohol - I don't drink
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Old 02-23-2006, 06:07 PM
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Paper Doll Gradulations on your sobriety That is awsome! Everyone was so wonderful in sharing. I thought I should. My Grandfather was an alcoholic. It was so bad my grandmother finally left after he shot at my cousin. Missing her head by mere inches. My other cousin became a drug abuser. My father drinks excessively, I would consider him an alcoholic. My sister can not go a single day without a drink, and blames my father & family saying it is not her fault it is "DNA" which of course for her absolves her of any resposablity for her behaviour. I have 2 children and one has had problems with binge drinking. I took him to therapy & to AA. And I pray that he will hear me when I say, the only way to not become addicted is to never drink. In the end though I know it is his choice. God Bless! & Keep sharing! Everyone is wonderful here.
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Old 02-23-2006, 06:10 PM
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I'm with you Robina--I hate it too and don't drink either.
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Old 02-24-2006, 02:58 AM
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my grandfather was an alcoholic on mom's side, and she was a true blue co-dependent. My grandmother raged at him - i took after her! My father is an alcoholic, and i think he is in denial about his dad, because that side of the family sure do act out the alcoholic/codependent drama. His mother never drank though.
I married an alcoholic. So my kids probably have quadruple the genetics to be alcoholics. their genes probably have little beer pitchers all over them just waiting for the big event. I have tried to not be evangelical about it -but do tell them that they may have an extreme "allergic reaction" to alcohol which may get them hooked from the start, so they might be better off avoiding it. I am hoping that by growing in my recovery that i will be able to furnish them the coping tools they will need in their adult life so that they won't need to fall back on such a wicked crutch.
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Old 02-24-2006, 04:25 AM
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My dad was, and on my H's side, his three brothers and father have/had "addictive" personalities so all total that makes five on the paternal, one on the maternal. I've used the same argument with my girls (20 and 21) about having the genes for becoming addicted to alcohol or something else. I worry about them all the time. They''re both in college and tend to think they are "responsible" drinkers. I know better, though.

I do have a drink now and then (a glass of wine about 3 times a week) but after reading some of the posts here, I'm losing my desire for even that. I guess I have my mother's genes...she could always "take it or leave it" when it came to alcohol and then had to stop drinking anything when she was diagnosed with some health probs (unrelated to alcohol). She also quit smoking cold turkey when my oldest daughter was about 3 mos old and we found out she was allergic to so many things. I used to smoke, again, sort of that "it's a party, I'll have a cigarette" type of things. I gave it up when my bp got pretty high and realized it was stupid to take bp medicine AND smoke. I already have to fight the weight related aspects of high bp.
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Old 02-24-2006, 04:46 AM
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Both sets of my grandparents were alcoholic. Both my parents are/were addicted. My sons dad's family has no addiction.

Although it broke my heart I made my son move to his dad's when he turned 15 so that he could be influenced by his dad and his dad's family instead of me and my family and my AH.

I also took my son to alateen for a couple of years. I see more codie than addict behavior in my son at this point...
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Old 02-24-2006, 07:34 AM
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I'm not really worried about my son genetically being pre-disposed to alcohol in particular. Enviromentally yes, if his dad continues to drink. In my family, out of 20 people on both my mom and dad's side, there are only 3 who are alcoholics. On dad's side, he and his brother are addicted but neither of his parent's were. My moms, my grandpa was highly addicted but only one of my uncles picked it up.

However, that being said I do believe that there are alot of undiagnosed mental illnesses on both sides. Everything from depression, anxiety, bi-polar problems, OCD ect. I worry about him getting hit with something like that and that being a factor in why he may start drinking to start with. I'll definitely be watching for things like that and if they come up, I'll be getting him treatment pronto.
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Old 02-24-2006, 10:52 AM
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On a lighter note...

If your family tree only has one branch....You just may be a redneck *LOL*
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Old 02-24-2006, 10:57 AM
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Originally Posted by best
On a lighter note...

If your family tree only has one branch....You just may be a redneck *LOL*

Bahahahahaha!
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Old 02-24-2006, 11:14 AM
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My mother's side the whole side I think actually many of them in all seriousness. My maternal grandmother drank because she lived with an AH and couldn't beat em so she joined em. My mom is 80 so they were different times for her parents and other strife that gave them reason to drink but my mom never did and she wouldn't have it in the house either and she was physically repulsed by the smell of beer but she has ACOA stuff big time and I am a result of that pain and unresolved abuse and I am a codapendent. I am the only child. My mom's one sister did drink heavily and one did not. My uncle her brother drinks and so did his wives on he is divorced from and one he is with. My cousins his son drinks but has shaped up a bit, girl from that marriage drinks, and son is an alcoholic and drug addict. That side of the family my mom's brother bad. Other sister, family drinks cousins in UK I do not know, and my other aunt her sister does drink but not abusively and her children do not. I drink but not abusively but AH is a bad influence and I started drinking with him and have stopped that was a few months and it made me sick. Now the whole thing makes me sick. I hate this dis-ease.
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Old 02-24-2006, 12:57 PM
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Originally Posted by best
On a lighter note...

If your family tree only has one branch....You just may be a redneck *LOL*
the drinking and drug aside
Maybe that the roots of my all problems.
A thai raised by a redneck. it's enough to drive anybody insane
or turn ya into a banana..
Yellow on the outside and white on the inside.lmaf
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Old 02-24-2006, 04:37 PM
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Looking back at my side of the family and my grandparents, they were too tight to drink, but definitely had the alcoholic personality and I was told that their parents were very physically and verbally abusive.

My husband's side would be the oak tree of alcoholism. It reaches back to Ireland, about 5 generations.

So my question to be added would be: Who was the acorn?

I did worry that my son would be an alcoholic. And he is. But recovering 14 months. Don't worry and don't panic. Educate yourself and your children.
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