Originally Posted by
Pigtails 
... as I explore my issues and my alcoholism, I keep getting tripped up on this chicken-and-egg type dilemma: Did I do all of these bad/wrong things because of alcohol, or did I drink too much because I was bad/wrong, or is it a bit of both??
It doesn't really matter, I think. Will recovery from alcohol addiction remove all your deficiencies? Probably not. Will recovery improve your life? I'd guess yes. Leave it at that.
And I suggest you read Playboy for the pictures...for recovery, read the AA Big Book and you'll see that it doesn't characterize alcoholics like blog-guy seems to suggest.