can alcoholism be genetic?
 

I am just wondering peoples views on alcoholism being genetic , i mean say if both your parents were drinkers or even just the birth mother before and during conception is it possible this can be true .Its just something ive heard of and wondered if it exists or not.?

I'm no expert, but I think there are studies that fall on both sides of the "coin". From my own experience in dealing with alcoholics, I believe genetics do play a role. My Sister, Dad, Grandpa are/were AH. My wife's Mother, Father, and brother AH. A sister-in-law, her Mom, and Grandma AH. This just seems to coincedental. Are they learned behaviors?? I think so, but there is also the people who grew up in this enviorment who can have a drink and stop. Just my two cents worth...

I think there is a genetic influence, a tendency to addiction. But that tendency is not set in stone or causual in nature. For instance I can trace alcoholism way back in my family, both my parents were alcoholic, my 2 brothers are alcoholic. But I am not. Just as there may be a genetic tendency toward obesity or heart disease, they can be avaoided by the individual.

Absolutely (in my opinion)

But, like was mentioned two alcoholics can produce a "normie" and two normies can produce an alcoholic, horrific broken homes have produced non alcoholic children, while healthy nurturing homes with no alcoholism have produced alcoholics.

Strangely enough, quite often the people raised in healthy happy homes with no alcoholism that feel they "had it out of the gate" subscribe to the "genetic" explanation frequently. They feel there is no other explanation.

Many sober alcoholics believe that they were alcoholic well before they ever took their first drink, as in they had a set of "symptoms" that alcohol alleviated then alcohol itself became "the problem" then they had to address both, while many feel they "crossed an invisible line" and drank themselves into alcoholism.

Personally I think I was born with this thing, I started drinking alcoholically at age ten, I don't think any amount of "strength of character" would have allowed me to "avoid" alcoholism any more then a ten year old with tuberculosis could have "avoided" contracting Tuberculosis. Drugs and alcohol allowed me to feel "normal" for the first time in my life and alleviated the terror I lived with from infancy.

Truthfully, in actual "sobriety" in most cases not too much time is spent on the "why's", it's spent on the "well I have this thing, what do I do now?" a lesson we could very well learn here ourselves.

I've never heard of prenatal drinking or drinking during pregancy in itself causing a child to be alcoholic, but it certainly can cause at least one debilitating birth defect: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

It's hard to tell the absolutes in an individual, but my family members and I have discussed this in great depth on a couple of occasions. I had five brothers and one sister. One brother was killed while high on cocaine when he was eighteen, he was one year younger than I. My oldest brother had problems with alcohol, my next oldest had very little. I became a chronic alcoholic and all of my younger siblings became alcoholic and drug addicts. My mother drank and did drugs during her pregnancies, except when she was carrying my next oldest brother, the one who did not develop alcoholism. Who knows, but there seems to be some legitimacy to the conditions that produce alcoholics, at least in my family.

I think it plays a part, yes.

I thought it was an established fact that alcoholism has a genetic component. When my ABF went through rehab they gave them a lecture on it.

Here's a link I found:
Alcoholism's Genetic Roots Becoming Clearer -- Arehart-Treichel 41 (19): 25 -- Psychiatr News

Spinner

To add a bit to this discussion:

It doesn't matter, if you're dealing with an active alcoholic, it simply makes no difference.

I can say that I know people who knew and had been warned repeatedly that they likely had a genetic predisposition to alcoholism/addiction, and in the majority of cases it didn't make a whit of difference. I've known exactly ONE person who took that information and chose to stay away from alcohol and drugs completely. The others, are in differing stages of recovery, or dead at a young age.

It plays enough of a difference that children of alcoholics she be warned to pay close attention to their drinking and that there is a good chance that they will have difficulty if not the impossibility that they can drink responsibly.

My ex A's mother was a closet alcoholic. His father completely controlled her access to alcoholic later in life, and they developed a very co-dependent relationship that my ex mimics today. His half brother too is an addict of sorts (alcohol and prescription drugs). They share the same mother...

I have two friends who have alcoholism in their families who have chosen not to drink at all. One has two alcoholic brothers so I think she made a good choice.

My ABF's parents are not alcoholic but he has several alcoholic cousins.

Spinner

I believe there might be a genetic influence, but I don't believe it can be used to predict or excuse active alcoholism.

I am the child of two alcoholics who came from a long line of alcoholics. There were seven children: one FAS and mentally disabled, three alcoholics, three reasonably normal.