Previous posts here have explored the notion that in some cases, a person’s addiction is basically a clumsy and ill-conceived weapon, whose purpose is to hurt someone. But who? The answer seems obvious: Father and/or Mother. Quite possibly, the point is to punish one parent for being a terrifying, disgusting addict. Or to punish the innocent parent for allowing and condoning the terrifying, disgusting behavior of the other.

Maybe the goal is to chastise one or both parents for being so neglectful and oblivious as to let the child fall into addiction. Or perhaps the object is to reject them for being so attentive and anxious, the child could never get away with the slightest digression from a set of unbearably strict rules. Or to punish one parent for being unfaithful in the marriage, which then endangered and destroyed the trust, peace, and safety of everyone in the family.

As previously suggested, a sensitive child could spend years under the rule of suspicious, intolerant, unyielding elder relatives, and then break out to establish a life that proves a point: “No matter how bad you used to think I was, allow me to demonstrate how wrong you were. You had no clue about my potential! Now just sit back and observe how outstanding my badness can really be!”

The responsible caregivers can either push or pull a kid into the addictive sort of trouble. There is historical precedent, and it was not rooted in evil. For many centuries, in regard to alcohol, there was almost no choice. This may have started innocently enough, when disease-causing bacteria were so prevalent in every other liquid that alcohol was the only thing even remotely safe to drink.

Even when people had no idea what germs were, they observed that alcohol could help a sword wound to heal cleanly. If someone was thrown from a horse and had a bone sticking out, washing the area with alcohol would be more helpful than not doing so. A general impression was left that it must be beneficial for the insides of people, too.

Parents can either “push” or “pull” a child toward addiction in any number of ways, and this example is the most effective. For centuries, in castles and mansions, it was unquestioningly accepted that liquor was always available. In the homes of the nobility,  a carafe of something alcoholic stood by, ready, in every room. To drink freely at any time of day was a sign of class. When visiting friends, women might drink tea, but men had to share alcohol, or their very masculinity would be questioned.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and for people in the midst of growing up, it could go either way. As the centuries rolled on, you could show allegiance to your parents by drinking just as much as they did and remaining civilized. Or demonstrate your contempt by drinking a normal amount, but doing it in a destructive, anti-social, bad-publicity-attracting way.

Maybe your parents were such ugly, repellent lushes that you wanted to rub their noses in it by reflecting that behavior back and making them see you that way for the rest of their lives. Or to punish the father or mother by being so awful, everyone else would finally recognize what a terrible parent that person was, what a monster they must have been, to drive their child into such a state.

You might hope to destroy a drinking parent by reflecting back their behavior in such an intense, exaggerated manner that they would finally realize what hideous examples and horrible humans they were. But then with other parents, it is just as easy to propose that the children became alcoholics or addicts to punish their parents for being so uptight, forbidding joy, and censorious of fun and pleasure. So as soon as they had the opportunity, the offspring displayed every crude behavior their parents were known to hate, in order to punish them for being so dull.

For generations, it has been standard procedure for high-school graduates to choose a college far from home, the better to pursue their careers as nascent alcoholics. How many fathers and mothers have been heartbroken because they worked and sacrificed in order to pay for “higher education”? That accidental pun is painfully accurate when the truth comes out, that all the kid wanted was to be far from parental surveillance, and to spend every minute looking for something to get high on, being high, recovering from a high, or seeking the wherewithal to get high again. Maybe they don’t exactly cherish the ambition to become an addict, but that is all too often the result.

Incidentally, this post has not even touched on the likelihood of addiction-proneness being genetically transmitted from one generation to the next. But here is the search page.

Image Copyright: Vika_Glitter/Pixabay.