I'm sure we've all heard that once someone is an alcoholic, they're always an alcoholic, whether they drink or not. If you don't believe that this is true (maybe not always, but at least for most alcoholics), then don't bother reading the rest of my post, and we shall have to agree to disagree.

The way it was explained to me by a psychologist is that people who are unable to tell when it's time to stop drinking once they've started are alcoholics (not to say that there aren't other ways to define alcoholism), and that if you have a lot of family members who have been or are alcoholics, it's most likely that you will be one as well, whether you ever actually consume alcohol in your life or not. He explained case studies suggest that there is a genetic (as opposed to solely environmental) predisposition toward alcoholism, and that even though neither of my parents drank any alcohol at all after I was born, the fact that most of my relatives are/were alcoholics means that I most likely have a predisposition toward alcoholism. I told him that I didn't drink much (which was true), and he said that it didn't matter, that I was most likely born an alcoholic. Do I KNOW that this is true? Of course not. However, based on people I've known I'd say that there is most likely a hereditary influence on whether or not someone will end up with substance abuse problems at some point in their lives. I'm not saying that they don't have a choice, just that some people are much more likely than others to have substance abuse issues at some point, similar to how some people are more likely to smoke than others (based on their brain chemistry).