If you in Los Angeles, being an alcoholic is a badge of honor.
I will say that I think there is a significant difference between an addict (alcoholic or otherwise) and a person suffering from depression. There are no pills to "cure" addiction, or even really stem the symptoms. There are often no environmental influences that cause addiction (although there may be environmental influences that provide access to addictive materials). You can't "fix" it, really.
I, like any other person, suffered some depressed periods in my life - hell, I think I'm in one right now, actually. But I understand what's going on just as I did back when I was 16 and hated everyone and everything and thought the whole world and every person in it was pointless. I am lucky enough not to suffer from any chemical imbalances in my brain that might cause depression (afaik); usually, when I am feeling depressed, there are tangible reasons. My wife and I moved to a new town where I don't know anyone. I work from home so I rarely have face to face contact with any real human beings (not counting grocery clerks or the guy who works at Kwik Trip) other than my wife; but she's a cop and works the swing shift, so I only see he for about an hour a day, and quite frankly you need more than one person in your life to talk to regularly anyway. In short, I am alone all the time and don't have any RL friends. Yeah, it depresses me. But I found a local hockey game, met some guys who like to hunt and fish, and things are slowly getting better. I can see tangible reasons for why I feel the way I do and, at least for me, I see a path out of it. Being older helps.
Alcoholism doesn't really have a "tangible reason." I know a woman who was sober for 10 years; she decided she wasn't an alcoholic anymore. So she had a drink, and that turned into drinks, and then a pattern of drinking all the time, until she lost her job and almost lost her family. She can't take a pill that will allow her to have a drink now and then. She either doesn't drink, or she runs the risk of killing herself with alcohol.