Originally Posted by wpainterw

What could be: Alcohol is a depressant, along with other things. It is highly addictive for some people. Anti depressants are often prescribed for those recovering from alcohol. It does not seem at least to me to make sense that a person would drink in order to relieve depression and that depression therefore "caused" that person to drink. The reason people talk like this is that subjectively they feel at the very first that alcohol is a "pick me up" (as in "I'm feeling so bad today that I need something to "pick me up"). They have a drink or two and subjectively feel better but in an hour or so it all goes away and they may feel worse than before. So they have more alcohol and they start on a stairway to deep depression. The slippery slope.
My suggestion is just follow the doctor's advice and don't worry about whether depression "causes" alcoholism or, the more likely idea, that alcohol causes depression.

W.