Niknak - Having had the unpleasant experience of living with an alcoholic, I can promise you that very few GPs know enough about alcoholism to be of much use.
Psychiatrists are rarely better informed and the average manipulative alcoholic can fool them for a long time, as I discovered.
The only people they can't fool are alcos in recovery 'cos they 've "been there, done that and got the T-shirt"!
Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon (for the families and friends of victims) are the only people who really seem to understand the illness properly and give good advice.
The alco I lived with has now been sober (and happy) in recovery for more than ten years.