Adoption studies have also supported the role of inheritable factors concerning alcoholism. Researchers studied male and females that were adopted, comparing them with non-adopted siblings. Both males and females of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents were also studied. The children of alcoholic parents is four times as likely to become alcoholic than one with non-alcoholic parents, even if the children were adopted and raised in non-alcoholic families. Furthermore being raised by a biological alcoholic parent did not increase the likelihood of developing alcoholism. This is substantiated by several cases that I personally know of where the person experienced problems with alcohol despite being raised by parents who never drank and provided love and support towards the person.
Another source of biological existence suggests that “high risks” candidates for alcoholism have instability in their nervous system that can be calmed by drinking alcohol. Studies proved that sons of alcoholic fathers are less able to hold their body still when asked to stand at attention, compared to sons of non-alcoholic fathers. People who come from non-alcoholic parents tend to sway more than those from alcoholic parents do. Medical studies suggest that patients who have an inherited disorder, ‘familial essential tremor’, in which their hands shake, are more likely to abuse alcohol. When they drink alcohol their tremors vanish.
SUMMARY: Alcohol abuses and alcoholism is as much as a problem today as it has ever been in the past. Alcoholism effects each individual differently. Therefore, everyone who abuses alcohol doesn’t become an alcoholic, but it is still important to understand the factors that are involved. Factors derive from biological, psychological, physiological, social and cultural fields of exploration. Alcoholism is a leach that sucks the life from an individual, families, and society. It turns people’s lives into a world of depression and loneliness.
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