The Story of Alcoholism and Genetics

Whenever someone has lost the ability to control their drinking, there are many questions that arise. The loved ones of the drinker don’t understand why he/she can’t just have a few drinks or why they even drink at all since it’s causing so many problems. The person struggling with alcoholism may be obsessed with the idea that they can drink like other people. They may think that someday they may be able to control their drinking. The reality is that alcoholism is a very serious mental illness. There’s often no way of turning an abnormal drinker into a normal one. Once one understands how alcoholism and genetics works, they may realize that they need to get help.

What is Alcoholism?

Before understanding how alcoholism and genetics works, one must understand what alcoholism actually is. The disease of alcoholism only affects a very small portion of the world’s population. However, those who suffer from alcoholism have lost the power of choice when it comes to drinking. When most people drink alcohol, the prefrontal cortex of the brain can tell the person that even though alcohol brings pleasure, it’s important to not overindulge due to certain consequences. The prefrontal cortex helps regulate a person’s impulses, logical decision making, perception of fear and many other aspects of thinking. Those with alcoholism have a prefrontal cortex that’s not working properly.

Prefrontal Cortex Involved with Alcoholism and Genetics

The abnormality of the prefrontal cortex of the brain can be passed down genetically much like any other chronic illness. Physicians and other medical professionals can tell a person if they’re more at-risk of suffering from cancer, diabetes or heart disease due to a genetic predisposition. Alcoholism and genetics work in a similar way. Those who have a family history of alcoholism or drug addiction are much more likely to develop alcoholism. It’s also important to remember that just because a bloodline may be prone to alcoholism, it doesn’t mean that everyone will become addicted.

The risk factor involved with alcoholism and genetics can also be based around other factors. Epigenetics involves different types of genes that may be dormant in a person until they’re activated by certain life-changing events. For example, two siblings may be genetically predisposed to addiction. The one who suffers some sort of trauma as a child will be most susceptible to the disease of addiction. This is extremely common because alcoholism often develops in a person who is trying to escape certain feelings or memories because they don’t know how to properly deal with them.

Finding Help for Alcoholism

Whether alcoholism and genetics played a role in your addiction or not, Beaches Recovery is here to help you. We’re located in Jacksonville, Florida. We take pride in helping people regain control of their life after struggling with alcoholism. Through individual, group and family therapy, we aim to help you discover the sources and triggers that are fueling your addiction while we provide you with a variety of different tools to help you cope with these situations. No matter what your family dynamic is or how low you’ve gone, you’ll see that there is hope to recover.

Beaches Recovery works with many different insurance providers. Aetna, BCBS, Humana, VA CCN, and Magellan may cover addiction treatment. Our 30-bed facility also provides you with options for different levels of care from residential and inpatient to our outpatient programs. You really don’t want to wait any longer to get on the road to recovery, do you? Call an addiction specialist at 8666050532. We want to help you break the link between genetics and alcoholism.