To say: 'I drank because [external circumstances / internal circumstances]' is insane.
If Bobby says, 'I chopped off my hand because the devil made me do it!', why did he chop off his hand?
(a) The devil made him do it.
(b) He was insane.
Clearly (b).
The hallmarks of alcoholics in AA are:
(a) We drank when external / internal circumstances were good, too.
(b) We drank when drink made external / internal circumstances worse.
(c) We drank when drink had no effect on external / internal circumstances.
(d) We drank when we knew drink would make external / internal circumstances worse.
... both in terms of the fact of drinking, i.e. the first drink, and in terms of excessive drinking after the first drink.
In other words, the opening statement, 'I drank because ...', is simply plain untrue.
This is important also because, if I drank because of external / internal circumstances, resolving those will mean I can stay sober without God or that I can drink safely, neither of which is true.
What is more alarming is that, if an AA member produces such statements, they have not understood the insanity of Step One and might well still be insane, in the sense of Step One: they still believe that the first drink is somehow a rational response to external or internal circumstances.
This insanity is evident also in statements such as, 'Today, I have a choice' or 'Today, I do not drink, because I know where drink will take me.' Such people believe that they are plum rational, and that they are relying on their reason to keep them sober.
I first drank because at some point I liked the effect it produced, just like with normal folks.
But, as soon as I became an alcoholic, I drank because I was an alcoholic.
MOREOVER, ONCE AN ALCOHOLIC, ALWAYS AN ALCOHOLIC.
That means I need God's protection, for the rest of my life, for which I need to be in God's service.