From an Alcoholic to His Children
July 27,2022 I am an alcoholic. Try as we might to avoid this conclusion, which is often obvious to those around us long before we are able to admit it, in the end the downward spiral makes it clear to even the most reticent of us: I am an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a disease. It is becoming increasingly clear that its basis is fundamentally genetic. It may be that environmental events are needed to trigger the manifestation of alcoholism as unmanageable drunkenness, but the underlying cause is genetic. In the alcoholic something is missing in the dopamine feedback loop that would allow one to stop after enough of a good thing. Take one drink and there is no “off” switch. The addictive personality can struggle with a similar reaction to many other simple pleasures. I often like to say that Goldfish are a gateway cracker: eat one and you’re soon living in a box of Cheezits. And really, who can eat just one potato chip? But the problem is much worse in the case of alcohol b...