BobArctor

No. My mother decided she was an alcoholic when my sister started going to AA. But, my mother rarely drank and didn't get drunk. After a while she stopped saying she was an alcoholic and continued to rarely drink and not get drunk.

Spacegoat

Scumbag narcissists. Particularly my mother. A next level deceiver.

And yeah. That woman drank a lot when I was young, in retrospect.

bonesofhope

My mum drinks heavily. Her dad was an alcoholic. Her aunt died of pancreatitis and kidney failure.

I think I definitely learnt unhealthy drinking habits from my family, and are possibly more likely to be genetically predisposed to alcoholism. But I alone chose to put that drink In my body. And I'm now fighting to never do that again.

charliesworld

No. I don't know anyone who is an alcoholic. I feel very isolated in that sense that no-one understands. .

MelindaFlowers

Father is an active alcoholic. Interestingly enough I became an alcoholic first. I drank alcoholically from 2004-2014. He began drinking alcoholically around 2008. He is still drinking. I have been sober a year.

TheRepairman

My Dad was an alcoholic. My mom rarely drank more than a glass of wine. Didn't know my grandparents on my dads side so not sure of the history. My grandfather on my Moms side was Irish and loved to drink, but I didn't really see it. Based on family lore, he was a binge drinker. My father went from being a good father to a bitter angry man. Alcohol consumed his life and he died an early age of pancreatic cancer.

Tang

Grandfather died of liver failure. Drank heavily. Recently found out my mother has been hiding alcohol....

The scientist in me still wonders about nature/nurture on this subject.

FreeOwl

I remember crying and writing a letter to my Dad from my aunt and uncles house at about ten years of age.

I had to ask my cousin how to spell 'alcoholism'.

I don't know where I'd even heard the term or what precipitated the letter. Just a memory...

And there are many snippets of memory of drunk Dad. Drunk stepmother. Drunken escapades. Always beer and wine and booze around. Hangover days, hanging out with Dad in bars... Riding in the backseat with cigarette smoke swirling, Dad with his 'roadie' beers....

Both Dad and stepmom got sober. After decades, Dad will sometimes have a beer here or there but never more than one. Stepmom is still sober. They're better for it, though sometimes I can still see the bitter drunk in them.

Mom never drank more than a glass of wine. Practically a teetotaler. Dad wasn't around much.... And when he was, there was always booze attChed. This post makes me wonder for the first time how much my desire for approval from him, for him in my life, contributed to my drinking and smoking from an early age.

Carver

Yep, my Dad's an alcoholic, and has been since before I was born (35 years old) I have no idea how he's still alive. I doubt he's got long.

Mum maybe has ONE glass of wine at Christmas, and rarely finishes the glass. I definitely picked up the drinking behaviour from my Dad, and I also think there's something in the theory that genetics make a person susceptible to addiction. But it's nobody else's fault that I chose to drink so much for so long.

Charlie117926

Neither one of my parents drank often. Growing up I would see my Dad maybe have one beer when other couples used to come over and play Rook (Cards). I may have seen my mom drink a total of five times my entire life.

CaseyW

Dad is an alcoholic. Has been sober since 1983. In fact, I think his sobriety date is sometime in August so it's coming up soon. 32 years. I don't ever remember him drinking and we've never really discussed his drinking in detail. I only know it was bad enough that he attended AA daily for 10-12 years before slowly stepping away from the program but staying sober.

No other alcoholics that I know of on my dad's side of the family.

Mom was addicted to various prescription pills, as far as I know until the day she died in February 2014. She was a very smart woman who had worked in pharmacies and medical offices for years and who knew how to con and sweet talk doctors into getting whatever pills she thought she needed legally.

Mom's mom thinks Valium is the cure for everything but wouldn't consider herself an addict.

Mom's dad was a horrendous, low-bottom alcoholic judging from the stories I've heard. He passed away last summer with somewhere around 40 years sober thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous.

All of my mom's brothers and sisters have addiction problems of some sort. As do a decent number of my cousins from that side of the family.

Knowing this long history of addiction in my family and seeing it up close and personal with my mom's problems, I actively chose to not take my first drink ever until I was almost 24 years old. I was drinking alcoholically within six months after that and probably much sooner actually.

Nero427

My parents were social drinkers but gave that up years ago. But drinking runs heavy on my mother's side. Grandfather was a notorious mean drunk and two of my uncles died due to alcohol complications.
Me? I just like it, too much.