My undergrad degree is in Biology. 30 years ago I had a professor who pointed out that our understanding of how DNA determines sex is “the New Biology.” DNA can’t be argued against. The code is absolute. The Human Genome Project failed to find the so-called Gay Gene the apologists were just sure must be there to excuse such behavior. For homosexuals, literally every cell in their bodies cries out against homosexuality, and belies the assertion that “homosexuals were made that way.”
I have done a huge amount of counseling for the Army over my careeer years, and often would encounter alcoholics, alcohol programs, etc. If you recall, that too was considered the result of some level of genetic disposition.
So, an alcoholic really was, for a while there, able to say, “I couldn’t help myself.”
The difference is that nobody cared. They did not accept that as an excuse. They wanted him controlling his deadly behavior.
As the years went on, it seemed more and more to me that it wasn’t so much a “genetic” thing, nor even a learned thing, but that it was a change that took place in the body as a result of the actual behavior itself. Being from an alcoholic parent certainly made it more likely that you, too, would indulge in alcohol. That’s a given.
But the addition of outside material into the body changed something, and I think something inside the body.