2010-09-04
In DRUG REHABILITATION / Tags: addiction, children, down, drinking, parents, pass, their /
Question by Azn Jessi: Can parents addiction to drinking pass down to their children?
The reason I ask this question is because of my friend’s psychology class. She thinks that children can be alcoholics if their parents were. But I think that its not hereditary. What do you think?
Best answer:
Answer by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
No
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yes alcoholism is a gene and is passed down. Thats why children of alcoholics need to be careful.
yes…a person is more likely to become an alcoholic if one or both of their parents were/are.
It seems children of alcoholics can be predisposed to alcoholism. Personally don’t know if I believe it is genetic or a learned behavior.
Yes it can..its highly likely to happen, but you never know. The kid might just turn away from it on their own. The only problem with it, is the pressure of seeing your parents drinking it, makes you think that since they’re doing it, its okay for you too.
They are your role-models, and the people who raised you. So it tends to get in the child’s mind that its “ok”. It isn’t hereditary at all..just a confusion of what is really right or wrong.
It’s not hereditary, but if the parents are setting an example to drink, then the child might follow that example and become addicted.
The say there is a gene that can make you an alcoholic if your parents were.. but.. my Dad’s dad died of his drinking yet my Dad never drank. If he did he limited himself to one drink and I never saw him drunk ever.
My husband’s Dad and Mom both drank everyday, and my husband did for awhile, but one day he quit.. its been over a decade since he drank.
So I think its a personal decision more than genetic.
I may happen to some, but I don’t believe it. I think we all make our own decisions and what our parents do, does not make up our life. Well I know it did nothing to my life. I am 30 and both my parents are and were drinkers and druggies and I am neither. My life, I made different. We all can fight our childhoods.
I agree with karken. Children mimic their parents, and have a better chance of contracting alcoholism than children who haven’t been exposed to that type of behavior. There’s also a possibility that it is hereditary, similar to that of a person becoming a drug addict even if their parents were clean while the child was conceived.
As a side note, ignore Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. I’ve read a few of his answers, and they’re all basically retarded or just plain wrong. Either he’s an idiot, is a pessimist, or is stating wrong answers on purpose.
Yes they are more likley to suffer from addiction. My father is an alcoholic,but because of what I have seen growing up with it and the way it has affected him and my family I know that I will never become an alcoholic I have my own children now and I would never make them feel Like I loved alohol more then them,thats how my dad made us feel. And that life was so bad for him that he had to escape into his own lil drunken world he so did not need to do that things could have been so different. We tried to help him but he never wanted our help never admitted he had a problem. There was only maybe 4 years in my life when he has been sober and I am 26. I dont hate him I know it is a desiese but I just wish he would stop drinking and come back to the real world! he has 4 beautiful children and 2 beautiful grandbabies,he is missing out on so much. I kow I will never turn to the bottle to solve my problems it just creates bigger ones! Hope this is of some help for you.
i dont belive so
yes i think so. my dad used to be a alcoholic and i know i got that gene~
Defentily. If you look at it this way: say their are twins and they get sepereated at birth several years later never even known each other can be just like their biological parents even though they were raised in two different ways. They will most likely wind up like their parents no matter how they are raised in these other families. Hope that makes sense.
alcholism is hereditary in some cases tho just cuz the parents had it doesnt mean a child will
Yes, children who are born to alcoholic parents CAN inherit a genetic predisposition towards alcoholism themselves- and this is often made worse if the child grows up in an enviornment where at least one parent is an active alcoholic. There is an organization for adult children who were raised in households where alcoholism was a factor- it’s called ACOA, or Adult Children of Alcoholics, and it is run under the same principles which govern AA and groups like that.
Alcoholism may not be genetic if and of itself, but the tendency towards its development IS- that has been proven repeatedly through research on the topic. You need to go to the website of the CDC and other organizations like that and read the research data that’s there. I can also name an example of a famous family that has had 3 different generations affected by alcoholism and drug addiction- the Barrymores. The Barrymores are an acting family which has been in Hollywood for over 50 plus years now. Currently, the only remaining member of the family who is still there is actress Drew Barrymore. Her uncle, John Barrymore, and her aunt, Ethel Barrymore, were both well known alcoholics, and her grandfather, John Barrymore Sr., DIED of acute alcoholic poisoning when Drew was a baby. Drew’s dad also had a long history of alcoholism and substance abuse, and she herself has been hospitalized repeatedly for the same condition. ( If you aren’t sure who she is, think of the movie ET for a moment- Drew was 6 years old when she co-starred in that film. She was the little blond headed girl in it.) This just goes to show you how the tendency towards alcoholism and addiction gets passed on from generation to generation. So my answer to your question is yes.