If he doesn't give out dx's and only treats empirically that way, you could pretty well figure out your own based on what works for you, for the most part... unless it turns out to be an antipsychotic, and then all bets are off, but it doesn't sound like that's the case for you.
My doc is kinda the same way... his attitude is who cares what form of BP you have? We just need to find the right meds for you. It was helpful to have that starting point, though.

One other thing... I've never heard a doc say that about sobriety... I've often heard the opposite. The two things are so interlinked that you could almost makes a dx based on drug of choice...