[Tushon]

I think that was the point of OP's comment, since you cut the rest of the statement

> You drink too much for a reason, not because you're a bad person.

the reason here being predisposition, environmental factors, genetics, and/or current illness

[getsugablitz2]

So those factors listed essentially encompass your personality and dictate why a person does any action.

In that case, how do we hold anyone personally responsible for anything considering that the reason a person does any action is a result of their genetics and the environment they grow in?

Not criticizing, just wondering how others reconcile this.

[DoreenMichele]

My dad drank heavily while he was in the army. He swore off alcohol when I was seven, but I never saw him drink to alcoholic levels.

I think he drank to suppress the nightmares from serving in the front lines of two wars. I think he began tapering off when he left the army when I was three. I think he did so with no conscious plan. He just didn't need as much alcohol to push away his personal demons so he could sleep and he probably just naturally reduced it over time without really thinking about it.

I've got a serious medical condition. I used to take a lot of prescription medication. I've gotten off all the drugs. It's really normal for me to stop doing X slowly over time and not really notice it until later. It's common for me to only really notice a change precisely because I talk a lot about my medical stuff with my adult sons, so we periodically go over "Oh, yeah, you used to do X, Y and Z and you don't anymore."

I also spoke once with someone who had a lot of shame surrounding a DUI on their record. One of the stories they told me: They had surgery for something and when the doctors opened them up, they found one of the organs necrotic. This was unexpected and they expressed surprise that this individual was still alive. They removed the organ in the process of doing this other surgery. The individual quit drinking after that, but still saw themselves as a bad person and an alcoholic rather than someone who was managing a terrible and life threatening medical condition with alcohol until surgery happened to resolve it.

I'm convinced that this type of thing is much more common than is generally recognized.

[taurath]

> In that case, how do we hold anyone personally responsible for anything considering that the reason a person does any action is a result of their genetics and the environment they grow in?

Every society struggles with this - how to stop people from acting in ways that are anti-social? Nobody has a universal solution, because universal solutions can't and don't exist - but thats why we have judges and justice systems.

Accountability is different than responsibility. Is it the fault of a pedophile that the psychological reason for their desires came through no fault of their own? No, but they are still held accountable for acting upon such desires, as its clearly an assault on the victim. Its a bit like arguing causality - it can go in a loop and you can never come out. The line most societies draw is when one person negatively effects another (assault, fraud, etc), or has a high likelihood to negatively effect another (driving dangerously, some would say drug use).

Note that being an alcoholic itself isn't illegal. Its a legal drug, you can have as much as you want as an adult in a free society. All the illegalities come in when your alcoholism negatively effects others.

[adontz]

Human being is fundamentally weak. The worst and mostly uncontrollable factor leading to addiction is not having a friend when you really need someone. It's not someone's fault. If person is assole and that's why can't befriend anyone, maybe it's because that person was traumatized by cruelty or ignorance in the past. We are weak and can't handle our lives alone at all.