I guess I was lucky. My parents split when I was 5. My dad is what I call a functional alcoholic: never drinks before or at work, never drinks before noon or weekends, etc. Here's the thing though, he was raised in a very stern and unloving home. His father never ONCE said to him, "I love you," and never hugged him. My brother was 11 at the time of the divorce and is very much like my dad...but was not what you would call a "functioning" alcoholic. It took alot of ugly shit for him to finally go to rehab in his early 30's. He's been sober now for about 4 years. Being 6 years younger, I was able to learn from his mistakes, do well in school/athletics/college/etc., and the rest is history...every time I hear Metallica's Sad But True, I think of my dad and what my brother once was. It may sound strange, but I also think of my dad as the Emperor from Star Wars who turned my brother into a cold Darth Vader-type, and all along I was like Luke Skywalker breaking the cycle...oh well.
I now have a wonderful son almost 2 years old, and he gets TONS of hugs. I'm still rules-oriented and teach right from wrong, but he gets tons-o-hugs!
I have a drink or 2 once or twice a week. My worst drinking was getting drunk once a week back in college rockin' out to GNR! Some of my best memories are being totally drunk with my friends screamin' Night Train, Estranged, or Coma back in our dorm rooms before hittin' the town. Oddly enough,
, most of my big drinking was done before I was 21.
You can fight and die for your country, but you can't drink a beer. How ridiculous is that?
I know this is a long post, sorry about that, but it's a great issue. One last thing, I really think alcoholism doesn't have much to do with alcohol itself. Alcoholics in my opinion tend to be addictive people with addictive personalities. Some people are workaholics, foodaholics, etc. I also know plenty of Born Again wack-jobs who used to be alcoholics, they just substituted one drug (alcohol) for another (religion). That's not to say that all religious people are zealots, these particular folks just tend to take things way too far...like the aforementioned alcoholics!
Oh yeah, and Jessica and D, I know where you're coming from as my brother threatened to blow my head off with his loaded gun. He just got home drunk, made my mom cry, and I threatened to punch him out. He responded with the gun threat, and I backed down. I know he was dead serious...very scary stuff.
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