drive to drink

To be so unpleasant as to impel one to drink alcohol to forget about it. The stress of this job will drive me to drink.

Fig. [for someone or something] to cause someone to turn to alcohol as an escape from frustration. Being a Cubs fan is enough to drive you to drink. She was driven to drink by the problems she had with her teenage son.

see under drive crazy.

To annoy someone to distraction. A twentieth-century Americanism, this expression implies that alcohol-induced oblivion is the only form of escape from the pest in question. W. C. Fields turned it around in his quip, “I was in love with a beautiful blonde once—she drove me to drink—’tis the one thing I’m indebted to her for” (quoted in Whole Grains, by A. Spiegelman and B. Schneider). See also drive up the wall.