As has been already shared in this series of articles Alcoholism and Addiction runs in families. There is a strong genetic predisposition for Alcoholism and Addiction and that problem is passed on from generation to generation.

There is no way to point to some one and say with certainty that they will walk that desperate lonely road if they choose to use or drink. But if that person has the propensity and they have the genetics to swing them than they are playing with dynamite. I was attending a lecture one time while I was working in the Drug and Alcohol field that put things into perspective for me. A question was asked and the person at the podium answered it. The question was. “What’s the difference between a Drug Addict and an Alcoholic?”

The mans answer was simple and profound. He answered. “Alcoholics are born and Drug Addicts are made. No one can drink themselves into Alcoholism you have to be born with the problem. Any one can become a drug addict. All they have to do is use enough of anything and tada they are an addict.”

That statement is true and has been proven to me time after time. I’ve never sat in a session with anyone after they have learned the ins and outs of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction that they say anything different. I’ve lots of people tell me in the beginning that they don’t have anyone in their family anywhere that was an Alcoholic. By the end they understand why great Uncle so and so was always stepping out into the garage.

But just as the identified person starts down the path of Addiction so does the family. The easiest way to visualize the whole scenario is simple. We all know what mobile looks like that hangs above a babies crib. Touch one of the hanging things and they all move. That’s true of a family that has a member that is starting down the path of Alcoholism. They affect each and every person they come in contact. They affect the family the most. Then comes the people they work with. After that it spirals out from there to the store clerks the people in the driving lanes next to them and so on.

The person is like a pinball and the disease of Alcoholism is the flippers that send the ball careening around the game board. The ball has no say about what is happening to it just like the person who is caught in the trap of addiction. They no longer have control over themselves. They cross a line and they are trapped by the drug or Alcohol. Their body is compulsively craving the use of the chemical and their mind is obsessing on the chemical. They have to use. It is said that the person lives to use and they use to use.

The same is true for the family. Just as the person travels the road of addiction so do they become addicted. They become ensnared in a trap of chaos. The using person each and every day they wake up kicks up a cloud of chaos so they start the day over again. Remember the little boy “Pig Pen” from the cartoon Peanuts? That's the addict. Every where they go they have that cloud of chaos around them.

It’s there natural defense. In that cloud are a thousand or more excuses for why they do what they do. In that cloud they have built up so many excuses to excuse the behavior they have done to everyone they have come in contact with.

The family is caught in that cloud. They have insidiously been drugged into that cloud slowly over a period of time. Sometimes the person is so good at laying guilt, blame and shame on others that the people involved have even started to doubt themselves terribly. Spouses begin to question their sanity. Children begin to question their worth. Co-workers begin their question themselves. It’s a terrible sight to watch and it’s an even more terrible world to live in.