I always felt that what you usually hear about trying to escape depression by drinking or just drinking as an escape for anything didn't really apply to me. I felt and still do to some extent that I drink because I just enjoy the inner glow. It's fun.

Now however I've come to feel that in addition to just enjoying it I also drink to escape the challenges of life such as career ambitions or projects that involve the risk of social rejection. The thing is you have to deal with the addicting power of booze. After a few years of drinking you don't stop at just one. The result for me being not a morning headache but an overall tiredness that kills my drive and then little gets done the next day. What am I trying to say? Just that you may think you drink just for fun but there can be underlying causes and if you look deeply you might see them.

And at some point I realized drinking will break up the entrenched thought patterns that create a bad mood. I mean you can be angry jealous worried and then if you have a few drinks that mood disappears-at least for a while.
for example I once had this girlfriend who I would get suspicious of flirting with other guys. The thoughts of her with someone else would constantly cycle in my mind until I was in quite a bad mood. But then I would have a couple drinks and those thought patterns would go away and I'd not be angry with her that is until the next day or so when I'd start my suspicious thinking again.