I am 1/4 Japanese, and have the "natural" genetic version of this. It does not stop me from drinking, though I naturally drink a lot less frequently than my pee

I am 1/4 Japanese, and have the "natural" genetic version of this. It does not stop me from drinking, though I naturally drink a lot less frequently than my peers because it is unpleasant. I don't drink casually, because the pleasure of a slight buzz is overwhelmed with the discomfort of having a hot face/chest and difficulty breathing (feels a lot like a mild asthma attack - like something heavy is sitting on your chest and making it hard to take a full breath). But at a special event or a party or something, yeah, I can and will still get drunk. Also, as almost anyone of Asian descent can tell you, you can take a Pepcid AC (or the generic equiv) around 30-45 minutes before drinking and it slows the conversion of alcohol into acetaldehyde, making drinking with this condition more tolerable. For someone with an actual, problematic addiction to alcohol, I don't know if the side-effects of an acetaldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency will be enough to stop drinking.