Some personality types gravitate towards drug abuse and some types gravitate towards programming as a primary activity. The overlap between the two sets is very significant.
Add in money and a tendency to have few friends, and almost certainly no SO, and the wonder is there aren't even more casualties. Though there are a huge number of people who get older and wonder where exactly it all went wrong.
The other problem, apart from alcohol per se, was the fact that he never had a smile on his face when sober. If alcohol wasn't available, he would still have been tortured.
Add in money and a tendency to have few friends, and almost certainly no SO, and the wonder is there aren't even more casualties. Though there are a huge number of people who get older and wonder where exactly it all went wrong.