Hi Bob, I also believe there are genetic factors which contribute to the development of alcoholism in a lot of people, or at least predispose certain people to becoming alcoholics. But it also seems to bite people with no genetic history. Both of my grandfathers were alcoholics, but my parents aren't, and my sister is a normal drinker. I am not sure whether genes played a role in my becoming alcoholic ... and without some type of "gene therapy" or something, I don't think it makes a lot of difference to my task of staying sober -- the fact is that I am an alcoholic whether genes played a role or not, so my focus is on developing the tools I need to stay sober each day, regardless of the "why".
I am also not sure if psychological factors or childhood traumas played a role ... I have found that there are people from a good home with loving parents (like me) who become alcoholic, while other people from bad backgrounds are normies, and vice versa.
So for me it is a big mystery, the "why" of it. What I do know is that I cannot control my alcohol intake once I take that first drink, and that drinking will ruin my life and everything I hold dear if I let myself go there. I am convinced after thousands of experiments that I am constitutionally incapable of ingesting alcohol like other people and that I cannot have "just a couple" of drinks. That realization for me was the important one, and having fully accepted it, I have to apply my energy to the task of never letting myself trick myself back into having "just one." This is a big thing for me, and enough work in itself!
I am still way early on the sober journey, so for me I have just been focused on the present in the hope that I can get to a better, different future. I haven't gone back to dig up the past yet. I haven't looked into psychoanalysis or anything like that to find some "root cause", if there is one that could be located and isolated apart from the chaos of my former self.
That's not to say that my recovery focus hasn't been geared towards fixing myself or becoming a better person in social and psychological ways. In fact, for me those are actually the biggest parts of recovery! "Just not drinking" is not going to do it for me, which is something I think you also recognize as your post suggests you feel a little helpless without "getting to the root of your issues." You are looking for something other than "just not drinking" to keep you from going back there.
What I am suggesting is that the work you put into recovery will help you deal with life on life's terms and make you a happier person even if you can't precisely pin down what happened along the way to get you here. If you can pin those things down with the help of a therapist or counselor, that would be even better. But we here at SR are probably not going to be able to tell you "why" you are an alcoholic -- what we can do is share our own experience and hope -- and many of the members here with long-term sobriety can offer tools for recovery that have worked for them and kept them sober.
Examples -- one big thing for me was seeing the connection between my alcohol use and my some times judgmental personality, my easily wounded sense of being affronted or slighted, my need for external validation, my holding onto resentments and grudges, my insecurity. Recognizing all of those things in myself has really helped me (I made these connections reading posts here and also listening to AA speakers while comparing them to my own experiences with relapse). I have also been larning to recognize my addictive voice when it pipes up which has helped me deal with cravings that pop up (I read about the AV, the "addictive voice", here and in the Rational Recovery book, which is great). And the link that Dee posted contains a lot of advice on lifestyle changes for managing stress, depression, and other things that will contribute to remaining in active addiction.
Therapy and counseling may help you pin down your own issues, but you will still need to do the work to deal with them even if you discover where they come from. The way I see it, recovery, using whatever program best matches your needs, will help you live your life with the tools you need to stay sober, whether you ever find the "reason" for your alcoholism or not. Once we accept that we can't drink, EVER, it's time to get cracking on a recovery plan and stick with it, NO MATTER WHAT.
There's a story I heard which sort of fits this topic -- a man gets shot in the thigh with a poison arrow. While he is on the ground, he is thinking, "Who shot me!? Where did he go?! Where did he come from?!!? Why did he shoot me??!!? Will I be able to find him??!??! Who would do this?!!?" And on and on and on ... None of that internal anxiety about the source of his distress actually addresses his problem. Better to pull the arrow out and tend to the wound first. Focus on getting better. He might never find the guy who shot the arrow, but he will live.