Straight from your article, "Some 30% to 70% of alcoholics are reported to suffer from anxiety and depression," Pandey says in a news release. "Drinking is a way for these individuals to self-medicate." Rats deficient in the CREB protein drank about 50% more alcohol than normal rats. They also showed more anxiety-like behavior in a maze test. These rats also showed a higher preference for alcohol over water compared with normal rats; yet they had similar preferences for sugar water -- indicating that the alcohol consumption was not related to taste preferences. These rats also displayed more anxiety than normal mice, which decreased when drinking alcohol. The anxiety-reducing effect of alcohol was not as great in the normal rats. Alcoholic rats had higher levels of the CREB protein in the central amygdala. These results indicate that the CREB or alcoholism gene is "crucial" to the anxiety relief that triggers alcohol addiction, Pandey writes. The alcohol is not the problem at all according to your article. There is a gene that some people have that makes them more prone to anxiety and depression disorders. The alcohol is their way of dealing with their problems. They are using alcohol as a way to fix their emotional problems, that does not make the alcohol itself, part of the disease. The alcohol is a choice. Those people need to find different outlets to treat their emotional disorders.