I encourage you to read" The doctors opinion" in the Big Book of AA. Alcoholism is a disease. This will explain alcoholism and that it is a 2 part disease:
A mental obsession
A physical addiction
I believe it is both. If it's in your family it is predetermined that you are more likely to develop alcoholism. It's also a progressive disease, I learned that 1st hand
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An obsession of the mind and an allergy of the body. For me I wanted another the first time I drank because I liked the effect of alcohol. I have an addictive obsessive mind that is my “ism”.
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Alcoholism, while active, is an acute mental disorder. It has several possible etiologies, including genetic, social and environmental factors. While I do believe it is a disease, I mostly believe it to be a coping mechanism for suffering and pain. Alcoholism is managed by one’s choices.
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Both of my grandfathers were alcoholics, my parents choose not to drink, and here I sit, feeling so much better >2 years of sobriety.
I have a tough time with buying into alcoholism being predetermined, genetic or a disease. That said, I’m not saying any of that is wrong. There are so many confounding variables when it comes to the behavioral issues involved that one can not simply point a finger to one or two causalities for alcoholism.
For me, it was a domino effect of bad life events, horrible circumstances, and a multitude of bad choices strung together for years. Along the way, I developed a chemical dependence on alcohol, and developed a pattern of behavior that was hard to break. Ultimately, I trashed my body, and had to face the hard truth. Stop drinking, or die. Through that realization, I had to reprogram my brain and resulting behaviors to not include alcohol as a response to stress, anxiety, depressive thoughts, and the like.
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From the doctors perspective sociocultural and genetic if you are looking for psychological perspectives.
I truly believe both have a part to play..of course you are predisposed if it runs in your family..but there's people who come from alcoholic families that do not drink alcoholically.
I was put up for adoption by alcoholic parents at one year old, and grew up in a family where nobody ever drank more than maybe a beer every few months, and I still ended up alcoholic. I think there are other factors and variables, but genetics still play a large part.
I think it might be in your DNA but to be honest you decide if you ignite the alcoholism just because there's plenty of people with alcoholism in their family but also aren't alcoholics...So I think you make the choice for that..
Both. There’s people I know in recovery that we’re normies up until they tried whatever drug of choice. I personally come from a family line of addicts and alcoholics so me being an addict was quite the inevitable. Some people don’t have a problem with drugs and alcohol until it becomes a problem. Weather it be Gentics or learned behavior. Both play the part in addicts lives today
I am all in on the doctors opinion although being as such an obsession the mind and allergy of the body I believe it to be an equal opportunity destroyer!
I believe it is both. Genetic or simply a coping mechanism. I've done lots of genetic testing due to a rare health issue I'm currently dealing with. The DNA sure shows whether or not a person has an addictive gene. My sister had the gene and I did not. Granted my sister never drank nor did drugs in her life so her choice was ultimately a smart one. However, my father drank a lot and was a functioning alcoholic. This leads me to believe that my past addiction to alcohol was not genetic. It was simply learned behavior that became self-soothing, numbing and an unhealthy mindset. It was my habitual way for dealing with hardships in life. A sort of escapism- if that makes sense. This was due to not having the right tools. Spirituality and God helped immensely too. Learning to replace unhealthy habits with new healthy habits while also reframing my mindset helped me greatly. This is the theory i came up with due to my experience and dependency.
I second the motion of reading the Big Book ' How Bill sees it" I also as an addict that was once the enabler to an addict long before becoming the addict feel that it's is a Brain 
disease that we give ourselves by using in the first place. Let me explain why. The addict I enabled for nearly 20 yrs was born to parents that never used, not even one drink, not one drug, not even a cigarette. I recall asking one of my daughters why she liked Taylor Swift, the answer I got was "Mom, Taylor Swift said I if I never drink, use drugs or smoke, I'll never have to worry about quitting
ng" Just some food for thought y'all.
AA has been around since 1935 and millions of people have found long lengths and I mean long lengths of soberity. As well as, complete abstinence from all mind altering substances. The principals of the program, the traditions of the program and the program itself works if you work it, and every addict is worth it. The only requirement is to have the desire stay sober.