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During 25 years of work in mental health clinics, I've watched as a great many lives have been negatively impacted by alcoholism. For generations alcoholism has been a pervasive presence in our society; however, despite its familiarity, it has remained a tricky subject for our culture to deal with.
The majority of us have been able to drink moderately; yet, there has always been a significant minority who have serious problems with alcohol. Public reactions to alcoholics have run the gamut from humor, to annoyance, to revulsion. Alcoholics have often been a source of shame to their families- a shame not openly discussed.
References to an alcoholic mother's "problem" or an alcoholic father's abusive behavior have usually been indirect. It has always been difficult to understand why one person could drink moderately while another would drink compulsively.
A major conceptual change has occurred with the growing awareness that alcoholism is a "disease." Research points to the theory that alcohol is "processed" differently in an alcoholic's body than in a non-alcoholic's body. Alcoholism could be said to be an "allergy" to alcohol and it appears to be a condition that people are born with. We know that alcoholism tends to run in families as an inherited sensitivity.
In some families virtually everyone who regularly drinks has the problem while in others it jumps around. At times the disease seems to skip generations. The craving for alcohol appears to be linked to certain proteins that form in the brain.
A study at Johns Hopkins University found that many children from known alcoholic families have slightly different brain chemistry than other
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