When health professionals say that alcoholism is hereditary, do you think they mean there is a gene for alcoholism, or is it a more generalized predisposition to a broad range of addictions?

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• yeah I think so too.

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  by Mrs.mezzo is a Wagnerian soprano on December 13th, 2006

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• Addictive or dependent personality is not the same thing as having an genetic predisposition to a disease such as diabetes mellitus and alcoholism...

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  by Tuscan on December 29th, 2006

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• Well I think a large part of it is if a young kid sees his older brother get trashed on his 21st birthday, or sees his father drink every night to escape the stress of his life, the kid is going to think alcohol is an acceptable escape and is more prone to try it rather than deal with stress in a health way.

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  by forsaken1111 on December 13th, 2006

• interesting, my situation is that I have an alcoholic dad but have never felt drawn to alcohol-I drink but its fairly rare and I don't drink to get drunk. I do however have other non-drug/illegal substance abuse type addictions!

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  by Mrs.mezzo is a Wagnerian soprano on December 13th, 2006

• There is no certain way to say that someone will or will not become addicted to alcohol. Its possible that you're more balanced than your father was, or that you've already found a healthy way to deal with stress.
  
  Its also possible that some people are on the other end of the genetic spectrum and inherit a natural resistance to addiction. We simply don't know enough about these things yet to say anything for certain.

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  by forsaken1111 on December 13th, 2006

• The scientific answers are not perfectly clear/black/white...What is known is that if a child has parents, grandparents, even relatives of the second degree (aunts, cousins)the chances are greater for the related individual to 'inherit' addictive traits and develop addictive behaviors

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  by Tuscan on December 29th, 2006

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• you are new here, anjana. please. I am not saying that you cannot tell us what you believe, but just don't come here solely to send us to one site.

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  by singwell-is off researching a lot on March 14th, 2007

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