FAQ/Help |
Calendar |
Search |
Member
Member Since Jun 2015
Location: US
Posts: 340
8 2 hugs
given |
#1
Both my parents were alcoholics. My father was high functioning and my mother was low functioning. She drank herself to death by the time I was 13. My sister took up drinking for some reason. I never did. I wonder why someone would since alcoholism runs in families. Why not avoid the possibility of becoming an alcoholic by never drinking?
__________________ The Universe needs an Ace |
Reply With Quote |
MickeyCheeky, Mopey, MtnTime2896
|
Legendary
Member Since Jun 2016
Location: Italy
Posts: 11,817
(SuperPoster!)
7 38.4k hugs
given |
#2
I don't think this is something we can fully control, AceRimmer... some people just pick up the habits and that's the way it goes. I don't think it's their fault. Others are able to avoid it. You never know what can happen in life. Sending many hugs to you
|
Reply With Quote |
Magnate
Member Since Oct 2018
Location: California
Posts: 2,025
5 1,520 hugs
given |
#3
Not being facetious here Ace, but I can tell you that personally I developed a taste for it early on, at my father’s knee as it were, before I had ever heard of such a thing as “alcoholism”. And once you do develop a taste for it, it can tend to sink its claws in pretty deep.
|
Reply With Quote |
Magnate
Member Since Oct 2018
Location: California
Posts: 2,025
5 1,520 hugs
given |
#4
Mickey you are such an angel. I wish you the brightest of Holidays.
|
Reply With Quote |
New Member
Member Since Dec 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 9
5 4 hugs
given |
#5
Something I've wondered about some too. I come from a pretty long line of alcoholics. Mopey mentions acquiring a taste for it I guess one way I'm lucky is that I've yet to find hardly any alcohol I care for the taste of (save for flavored drinks that mask the taste).
I do know that coming from a childhood with an alcoholic parent or parents, a lot of us bring a lot of emotional baggage and pain. And life isn't guaranteed to get any easier in adulthood. Maybe for whatever reason that's what they choose to numb their pain. |
Reply With Quote |
Magnate
Member Since Oct 2018
Location: California
Posts: 2,025
5 1,520 hugs
given |
#6
Quote:
|
|
Reply With Quote |
Elder...and a bit Older
Community Liaison
Member Since Nov 2013
Location: My Own Orbit
Posts: 6,912
10 371 hugs
given |
#7
I don't drink 'hardly at all' for that very reason.
__________________ The devil whispered in my ear, "You cannot withstand the storm." I whispered back, "I am the storm." |
Reply With Quote |
Member
Member Since Jun 2015
Location: US
Posts: 340
8 2 hugs
given |
#8
Quote:
__________________ The Universe needs an Ace |
|
Reply With Quote |
Magnate
Member Since Oct 2018
Location: California
Posts: 2,025
5 1,520 hugs
given |
#9
Good for you Ace. More power to you. I would say that by the time I was in my mid teens I was drinking wine with dinner and the occasional hot buttered rum. Come to think of it, that souns pretty good as I sit here waiting at the laundromat with rain running down my windshield...
|
Reply With Quote |
Legendary
Member Since Mar 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 10,924
15 24.1k hugs
given |
#10
It can be difficult to resist the example set by parents. One grows up with that example, one sees it every day. That example can seem as natural and irresistible as the air one breathes.
|
Reply With Quote |
Mopey
|
Guest
Posts: n/a
|
#11
There are many reasons why children of alcoholics and drug addicts also end up abusing alcohol and drugs as well.
Mother's that abuse alcohol and/or drugs while pregnant will most likely have babies that are born already addicted to the substances they (the mother) are abusing ... These babies have to go through detox as soon as they are born. Some kids are able to overcome it, but most are not as the monkey has already been put on their back long before they had the choice to choose to "Just Say No" to alcohol and drugs. Also, some parents think it's funny to let their toddlers and children ingest alcohol and drugs and laugh at the kids when they get tipsy, drunk or stoned on the substances they (the parents) are abusing. That to me is a very sick and evil thing to do to a child. Oh!, and there are also parents that use their children as mules, dealers and runners when the parents manufacture, sale and distribute such substances illegally, and most often these children grow up to continue doing what it is they've been taught to do. |
Reply With Quote |
Grand Poohbah
Member Since Nov 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,627
6 342 hugs
given |
#12
Well, here was my reasoning.
I had my first taste of alcohol somewhere around 8 years old. I was feeling a little sick to my stomach, and my step-father (an alcoholic himself, and the first of a string of several alcoholic/addict step-fathers) told me a can of beer would help. Gave me one, and said I should drink all of it. I hated it. And it didn't especially settle my stomach, either. But I felt *so* grown up, sitting there drinking a beer with my step-father. In our family, children had basically no value. Adults were the only ones who mattered. Life centered around what pleased them, while kids existed to basically sit there and shut up, do as they were told, and speak only when they were spoken to. I didn't like being a non-person. I wanted to be an adult. And as far as I could tell, drinking, smoking, and cussing were what adults did. If you didn't do those things, then you were still a little kid. And who wanted to be one of those, if it meant you didn't matter? |
Reply With Quote |
Anonymous41006, Mopey, MtnTime2896
|
Member
Member Since Jun 2015
Location: US
Posts: 340
8 2 hugs
given |
#13
My mother set herself on fire twice. She almost drowned in the bathtub once. She killed my dog. Dad lost his driver's license for a year once.
__________________ The Universe needs an Ace |
Reply With Quote |
AzulOscuro
|
Magnate
Member Since Oct 2018
Location: California
Posts: 2,025
5 1,520 hugs
given |
#14
|
Reply With Quote |
Member
Member Since Jun 2015
Location: US
Posts: 340
8 2 hugs
given |
#15
Quote:
__________________ The Universe needs an Ace |
|
Reply With Quote |
Threadtastic Postaholic
Member Since Dec 2018
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 6,006
(SuperPoster!)
5 192 hugs
given |
#16
I am 43 so growing up with an undiagnosed mentally ill, addict father, yet sober mother I had a 50/50 shot. I had never heard the word alcoholism until I was an adult. My parents were hippies that eloped in California and had me when they were 21. My mom has always been great and parenting made her an adult immediately. My dad, he wasnt ready. Easy accepted access to mind altering drugs from the 70's and lack of knowledge about addicts made it hard for my mother to accept things about her husband. Everyone that was a hippie mostly grew up and entered the 80's having given up party drugs, coke and stuff. People were fine with the town drunk but intolerant with the town crackhead and the war on drugs..anyway I am being long winded. My mom didnt realize until much later what an addict is, how good at being manipulative they are, plus she was emotionally abused by my dad. Unfortunately for me, I inherited the (old school label was massive depressive) bipolar II and addict genes and combine that with my personality and it was only a matter of time.
I am so fortunate I didnt get into hard drugs- I say that tongue and cheek though because stopping drinking was the most brutal thing I have ever done and I did it like an idiot on my own. I am so fortunate I didnt die trying. So... I basically was modeled coping mechanisms that were not viable or healthy even though I had a great mom, and had an abusive relationship with my dad even past their divorce. And I spent my entire 20's and early 30's learning how to grow up and be a healthy adult. BTW my dad never stopped drinking and recreationally using drugs and dropped dead of a heart attack at age 47 in his driveway so I am glad I stopped. __________________ "I carried a watermelon?" President of the no F's given society. |
Reply With Quote |
Bill3
|
Bill3, Ella68, lady411
|
Reply |
|