Thinking it over a bit more, a lot depends on how you ask the question. So if you ask me "What made you start drinking?" I'd say that most of my friends were drinking. Then if you ask, "Why did you start to drink differently from your friends?" well that really gets into the nitty gritty- genetics, personality characteristics, lifestyle, depression- the list is endless. Then ask, "Why didn't you stop?" One answer is that things hadn't gotten bad enough. I thought I could still handle it. Then ask, "Then did there come a time when you couldn't stop?" I'd say yes to this. There came a time when I was scared to death of what might happen if I quit. And I had every right to feel this way since, unless I had help, stopping cold turkey could have had very serious and possibly fatal consequences.
So much of it depends on when and how the question is asked. I agree that it's more important to ask and discover how to stop than to ask "why?" but it's always useful to explore the why since it may lend a clue to the "how".
W.