I think everyone has an opinion on this, but, I would say - dancing with using too much alcohol as a "crutch" to deal with things could be classed initially as a dependency.
I certainly see my initial alcohol use in that light - but that's only now in hindsight. And I could have pulled in my behaviour at that point. HOWEVER, the tricky thing is, when we tell ourselves that it's only a passing overuse of alcohol, I don't think we see how grave the problem can become.
Alcoholics don't just wake up as raging alcoholics...it all starts with depending on alcohol too much to make us feel good and goes from there. I certainly didn't take any of my alcohol use as seriously as I should have, and in fact, that's part of the trick alcohol plays on us to keep us locked in the cycle. Denial.
Just some thoughts.