by Lisa Frederiksen
I was surprised when I read this statistic on the NIAAA “Rethinking Drinking” website, which brings me to the point of this post — namely, that for children of alcoholics, perhaps the best 
approach is to join this group and not drink alcohol. Here is why…
Of the common biological, environmental and developmental risk factors contributing to a person developing the disease of alcoholism (along with alcohol abuse, of course), the following three are of particular importance to people who grow up in a family with a history of alcoholism:
- Genetics. Just as with breast cancer or heart disease, if you have a family history, there is a greater likelihood you are genetically predisposed to alcoholism. Children of alcoholics, for example, are 4 times more likely to become alcoholics than children of non-alcoholics.
- Social Environment. People who live, work or go to school in an environment in which the use of alcohol is common – such as a work place in which people see heavy drinking as an important way to bond with co-workers or in a family where heavy drinking accompanies just about all family interactions – are more likely to abuse alcohol themselves. Alcohol abuse changes the chemical and structural make-up of the brain and that contributes to the potential of developing the disease of addiction – a chronic relapsing brain disease – of which alcoholism is one.
- Childhood Trauma. Abuse or neglect of children, persistent conflict in the family, sexual abuse and other traumatic childhood experiences, such as growing up with family alcohol abuse and/or alcoholism, can shape a child’s brain chemistry and subsequent vulnerability to addiction or to accommodating unacceptable drinking behaviors as “normal.”
While not in the vein of having a family history of alcoholism, I’d like to close this post by mentioning the following additional risk factors, as well:
- Mental Illness. Just over half of alcoholics and alcohol abusers have a mental illness (depression, PTSD, ADHD, bipolar). Generally what happens is they start drinking to self-medicate the mental illness or their drinking makes the mental illness worse. If a person has a mental illness and abuses alcohol or is an alcoholic, it is important to treat both conditions – it does not work to treat one, without treating the other.
- Early Use of Alcohol. Young adults, ages 18-20, have the highest rate of alcoholism in the American population. This is caused, in part, by repeated alcohol abuse during the critical brain developmental stages of “pruning” and “strengthening” that occurs from ages 12 -20 and beyond. The portions of the brain that deal with emotion, memory, learning, motivation and judgment are the last to develop. As such, they are the most deeply affected by alcohol (or drug) abuse during the strengthening and pruning stage.
