Surely the key phrase is 'dependence on'? There are few of us, who aren't teetotal, who haven't slid from 'just one more' to falling to the floor, sleeping in a stranger's flat/car/bed/garden, or even managing to get home with no recollection, on waking, of the past 12 hours? The occasional smasheroonie doesn't mean that we are or were alkies. Neither does short-term heavyish drinking following a personal disaster make us alcoholics - just temporarily numbing the nastiness of whatever's occurred.
It's when you can't face the day without a drink or three, or go out in the evening without the aim of getting rat-arsed, again and again, that you have a dependency, as much as anyone on cigarettes, long-term prescription drugs or the naughtier ones.
As for trying to get those affected to recognize that they have a problem, it's probably best, first of all, not to emulate them and thus support their activity. Most of them lose their chums, their family, their jobs, their homes, and finally their health if they don't have the WILL to give up. You won't be able to shame them, frighten them, or bribe them into stopping, because chemical imbalances have occurred in their body's system which now make them crave alcohol in the way that a heavy smoker craves nicotine, or a user craves heroin. There's sometimes an underlying problem behind alcoholism which needs addressing - but sometimes they're nice, middle-class professionals with lovely families and big houses, and no real hang-ups. Some people seem to be very susceptible to certain substances, and alcohol is just one of a variety.
