I may be an outlier here, but I believe that analysis can wait - put bluntly, when giving up it doesn’t matter why we drink, how we got to a point where drinking became a problem, and where we sit on a scale of problematic drinking (social drinker, problem drinker, alcoholic) doesn’t matter either. The important thing is that we stop and stay stopped.
The rest is interesting, and an ability to understand ourselves helps psychologically, and might even prevent relapse, but (and this is just my opinion) getting hung up on it in the early stages is likely to be counterproductive. Even qualified psychologists don’t analyse themselves- it’s all but impossible to be dispassionate - and depending on our personalities we are likely to be really hard on ourselves or to make excuses.
I agree that anyone can have a negative experience with alcohol, and that this is because of the alcohol itself. The way it is advertised, made available, marketed as an essential celebratory ingredient and so on doesn’t help, and yes, the substance itself is addictive. There is a whole industry devoted to pushing booze onto us, and another to helping us stop.
Whether you beat yourself up or excuse yourself (and the rest of us) for developing a difficult relationship with alcohol won’t alter the fact that breaking free of it is difficult but vital to moving forward to a healthier, happier and richer way of life. That is where I think our attention should be.
Whatever the reason for needing to stop, what is the best way to do it? The answer to that will differ from person to person. Some people need to fill the time that used to be filled with drinking. Others need a dopamine hit. Some need to break a deeply ingrained habit and so on. What worked for me might or might not work for some, but it will for others.
I think the ‘trick’ (if only it were as simple as that!) is to work out what alcohol does for us, and find a way to replace that with something else. If that sounds blunt, that’s because I can be, and if it is simplistic that’s because the bottom line is simple - we drink or we don’t, and there are huge profits being made persuading us to do both. I know it’s not easy though, and I’m not remotely smug or complacent about my own situation, I promise.