This old thread is a good topic.
I am in the camp of those who would say their drinking is (was) probably but a symptom, but not as an excuse. In other words, I am facing the idea that I can't drink properly. The alcoholism was a pseudo-answer for something else underneath. By "answer," I don't mean "solution," since it didn't solve anything. It just gave the illusion that things were better, especially if it helped to eliminate problems on the periphery like insomnai or otherwise put in place a routine (and one that included the buzz feeling at that).
So if I say my alcoholism is a symptom of something else, it's not so I can pretend I will be able to drink again; it's just that my problems with myself manifested themselves in the form of drinking, which eventually became a problem big enough to look at all on its own. So stopping the drinking is one step in a big stairway, I guess.
And I probably won't be able to get back to you on how well I have done at correcting the underlying problems until I make it to heaven, if it's out there. In the meantime I will stay away from drinking.