Expert: Jan Edward Williams - 2/17/2009

Question
Hi Jan Edward
Can you mull over three questions please?
 1.I can go for weeks without booze, or just having a couple drinks like normal.
However for some reason, every few weeks, when I am having a drink, I get this urge to get totally drunk-damn the torpedos, never mind what is in store for tomorrow.
Is this the bahaviour of an alcoholic? Its like a switch goes off in my brain I cant turn off.I
Also,my Grandmother used to say that I reminded her of my Dad. For a couple days after he drank he was all anxious and depressed until he returned to his normal happy state.
I have tried to figure out why I am like this. Is it hereditary? A friend says that alcohol increases cortisol production and the cortisol is what is making me feel this way. Have you heard of this?
3. I have an estranged son that lives in another city.
I have sporadic contact,recently through Facebook. He is behaving the same way I was at his age-drinking too much, getting beligerant when drunk,etc.
Is this an indication of the hereditay aspect?
Thanks!

Answer
Hello Bud,
It is difficult to answer your questions without more information. You don't say what happens when you do get "damn-the-torpedoes-drunk." Do you have any negative consequences, such as blackouts, negative personality change, drive, behavior against your values, cause relationship problems, etc? It sounds as if your drinking may (but I need more information) fall into a pattern we used to call alcoholic periodic or binge drinking (not the same as the term applied to college students drinking). Are the periods of getting drunk increasing, with less time in between?

If your Dad was an alcoholic, you are at risk to become an alcoholic. Genetics explains between 40 to 60% of alcoholism, Persons with an alcoholic father are four times more likely to become alcoholi. If you have had a high tolerance for alcohol since initiating drinking as a youth, and your father was an alcoholic, then you may be six times more likely to develop alcoholism.

The desire to drink more may have an hereditary aspect too. Alcohol boosts production of many feel good chemicals in the brain; there is some research that suggests that children of alcoholics may start off life with a lower amount of feel good chemicals such as serotonin, and react to alcohol with enhanced pleasure.

So, it is possible that you and your son may have alcohol problems at least in part due to a genetic predisposition to develop such a problem.
Jan Edward Williams, MS, JD, LCADC
www.alcoholdrugsos.com