Richie was drinking for years before the death of his father and the break up of his marriage, and he was a perfectly fine, functioning human being. Those things happened and it seems to turned to Alcohol in extreme quantities to cope. That is using drink as a coping mechanism, not as an addiction.

The problem with a lot of rehabs is that they go for the quick fix, and don't treat the problem, so they get cleaned up let them out, but don't deal with the reason WHY they were drinking in the first place, so it happens again. I have a friend that used to work with musicians in LA that were struggling with drink and drug abuse, and she says that this happened all the time...

As I said, it's very dangerous to presume that people are drinking simply because they are addicts...