Great post! Coming from a home where alcoholism was a problem, I never really was a serious drinker and, now, haven't had a drink for many years. When I ask people why they drink they answer it is because a) it is a social lubricant b) it relaxes them. My question to them is then what is going on in your life that you can't socialize or relax without a drink.
I disagree, somewhat, with your wording that drinking/medicating cures the symptoms ... I would say that it masks the symptoms, something like a bandaid on an open sore, but it doesn't heal the underlying problem - why the sore is there in the first place.