Alcoholism Hereditary?

[Smowball]

I was speaking to a friend earlier and she's convinced it is. Her dad died of alcoholism and her brother is an alcoholic, and she's already worried she could head that way in the future. Is there any truth in it at all?

[EDDIE51]

Looking on Google it seems alcoholism and alcohol dependence are both classed as 'Alcohol Abuse' now. One site summed up the difference by saying 'An alcoholic has a physical addiction while an alcohol dependent has a mental addiction' I think that about sums it up.

[atalanta]

I believe the social/family circumstances may be hereditary ( in a way) but the psychology isn't. If a child grows up seeing that the best way to deal with stress, poverty, joblessness, loneliness seems to be drink, because his/her parents, grandparents and so on turned to drink, then that child when grown up may well try the same solution. However, there are bound to be some smart children who can connect the poverty to the alcoholism as well as the alcoholism to the poverty. Those children are probably more likely to become Teetotal.