Blaming your first drink for your alcoholism?

[Monkeyleg]

I saw this little blurb in today's paper. I don't know if Eddie Van Halen really said this, or if what he said was taken out of context. I hope it's the latter, because if it's not, he hasn't learned anything.  If he was taken out of context, then the reporter is an idiot (a redundancy, I know).

New York--Eddie Van Halen puts some of the blame on his father for his long struggle with alcohol.

In the May issue of Esquire, the Van Halen guitarist said "the whole alcoholism thing" when he asked his dad how to combat his nerves when playing music in front of people.

His father gave him a shot of vodka and a cigarette to ease his nerves, and that started Van Halen on a near lifetime of drinking.

Van Halen, 57, also talked about the struggle to get clean, pulling his son Wolfgang out of school at 15 to join the band, and his relationship with ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli.

My grandmother gave me a sip of beer when I was 12 or so, and my brothers made me smoke cigarettes about the same time. I guess I should blame my decades of drunkenness on her, and my chain-smoking on them...or a reporter.

[White Horseradish]

It's hardly a new notion...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWW4-oBCzbQ

[gunsmith]

imo alcohol is as addictive as any drugs, some people get addicted instantly to weed and some do not.
I quit drinking and weed and ciggs- ciggs were the most difficult to stop, yet I didn't get addicted to them the first time I tried one.

I think giving kids with addictive tendencies alcohol/drugs is sort of like priming an engine, you could end up with a roaring alcoholic/junkie

Its easier to blame other people for your addictions, the rub is, sometimes it really is your parents fault.

[Chester32141]

I was not an alchoholic nor was I addicted to drugs.  I always blamed my wasted years on Western movies from my youth.  In a typical Western the gunslinger/gambler was the cool guy and the hard working farmer was the mope.  The gunslinger got the girl and then got to dump her when he left town (Freedom) ... The gunslinger got to frequent bars whenever he wanted where as the farmer had a wife that rode herd on him ... The fact that for the first 10 years after high school I worked for a hard drinking construction company may have been a factor also.

[Perd Hapley]

I think the point is that his father told him to deal with his stage-fright by drinking.

[Tuco]

When a guy gets hit by a train, is it the locomotive or the caboose that kills him?
Does it really even matter?

Take it one further.  According to an accepted medical model, alcoholism exists before adding alcohol.

[grampster]

I don't claim to understand why people do what they do.  But, looking back over my 68 years, many of my "habits", it seems to me, may have come about because of strict parenting.  Many of the things my parents put on the prohibited list or only granted in very limited amounts, I indulged myself when I became self sufficient.  I don't necessarily ascribe to my observation being a general rule, though.

Still, life is about choices.  One can choose to continually indulge one's self with harmful substances when used to excess, hang with the wrong people, or learn to control those indulgences and wants and associations.

Sometimes I look at myself and say WTF!  Does anyone else notice that perhaps each of us is more than one person in a single body?  A friend of mine who is a shrink, specializing in multiple personalities, once told me that is actually pretty normal...until you start giving them different names.

[MrsSmith]

I blamed my stepfather for years for the fact that I smoked. When I was 17, he came out behind the shed where I was hiding with a cigarette and said, "If you're going to smoke, you might as well do it inside," as he handed me an ashtray. I used to tell my friends that if he hadn't made it "ok" for me to smoke, I probably would have gotten tired of the sneaking around and quit.

It wasn't until several years later that I recalled he also bought booze for me and my friends when we were teenagers. I never had a problem with drinking like I did with cigarettes, but I could hardly lay one at his door if I couldn't lay both there. While his parenting skills were clearly lacking, my cigarette addiction (the only thing I ever had an issue with) was entirely my own and couldn't be blamed on anyone but me.

And I'm happy to report that I'm STILL cigarette-free since November. Haven't even thought about it in a long while.

[HankB]

When I was very young, I would often be offered a sip of beer by my father and grandfather. I always liked it. One day at about age 4 I was "helping" Dad clean up the attic - just as he opened a beer, the phone rang and he went downstairs to answer it. When he returned, the beer was empty for some reason.  (I slept real well that afternoon.)

As a kid I never had any respect for "minimum age" laws regarding alcohol consumption . . . or anything else, for that matter . . . but I didn't drink to excess and never drove while drunk. Now I average just a couple of drinks a week, and don't "binge" drink. (If I have too much, I get a hangover right away.)

As for cigarettes, I hated smoking from the very beginning - couldn't stand the smell - so I never started.

[RaspberrySurprise]

A number of people fail to realize or refuse to live up to the fact that you are the one responsible for your own actions 99% of the time. World would be a better place if more people wised up to that.

[Monkeyleg]

A number of people fail to realize or refuse to live up to the fact that you are the one responsible for your own actions 99% of the time. World would be a better place if more people wised up to that.

That's what I'm trying to figure out with this story. Does Eddie Van Halen really believe it's his father's fault for his alcoholism because his father gave him a drink? I hope it's the reporter embellishing the story. (Not that I ever liked Van Halen anyway).

[Tuco]

That's what I'm trying to figure out with this story. Does Eddie Van Halen really believe it's his father's fault for his alcoholism because his father gave him a drink? I hope it's the reporter embellishing the story. (Not that I ever liked Van Halen anyway).

In a medical sense, it's his father's fault he's alcoholic as much as it's my grandfather's fault I have high blood cholesterol.
 
I'm guessing it was a contextual malapropism.

[RoadKingLarry]

Sometimes I look at myself and say WTF!  Does anyone else notice that perhaps each of us is more than one person in a single body?  A friend of mine who is a shrink, specializing in multiple personalities, once told me that is actually pretty normal...until you start giving them different names.

Wait, are you telling that's a problem?

[Perd Hapley]

Sometimes I look at myself and say WTF!  Does anyone else notice that perhaps each of us is more than one person in a single body?  A friend of mine who is a shrink, specializing in multiple personalities, once told me that is actually pretty normal...until you start giving them different names.

"Am I talking to Miranda now?"

[gunsmith]

  I always blamed my wasted years on Western movies from my youth.  In a typical Western the gunslinger/gambler was the cool guy and the hard working farmer was the mope.  The gunslinger got the girl and then got to dump her when he left town (Freedom) ... The gunslinger got to frequent bars whenever he wanted where as the farmer had a wife that rode herd on him ...

One of my favorite scenes from a movie, is when they hand the doctor a bottle of whiskey as he is standing over Liberty Valence.

I too was influenced by western movies, McClintock was another one.

[grampster]

"Am I talking to Miranda now?"

Nope.  Still hanging on to one name, at least for the time being.

[Monkeyleg]

Nope.  Still hanging on to one name, at least for the time being.

That's good. We were beginning to think you were wearing bananas in your hat and calling yourself Carmen.