Sometimes I go through heavy drinking periods (particularly around Christmas when I'm out with friends, family and clients) and sometimes I go through dry spells. There's no real pattern with it for me, but what I have noticed is that I put quite a bit of weight on in the past few years, partly through getting into real ale, then into cocktails, then I damaged my knee. Before I knew it I'd put on a fair amount of weight and couldn't exercise. To make matters worse I'm fairly social and generally run the cocktail bar at parties.
I'm not going to diagnose but my first guess would be that you might be used to a particular drinking pattern. When you step out of that pattern it feels odd. I certainly had this after drinking a glass of wine most evenings in front of the TV. It was part of my switch off from work ritual to separate work from home life. I changed my ritual and cut it out, although I do sometimes have a glass of red wine with an evening meal (but usually once every two weeks, if that).
Currently as I'm on a diet I'm not drinking, although I'm only following my diet during the week (at the weekends I eat and drink sensibly, but don't diet).
You need to decide what you want. If you want to give up alcohol completely then do it. You've managed periods before, and don't see the occasional drink as a failure - think of all the time you're not drinking and see if the time you get back is worth it.
If you want to manage your drinking more effectively then you need to work out in advance a system that works for you. This is harder than stopping drinking and you need to commit to it. I limit my calorie intake, so that kind of determines whether or not I can drink and how much. I also decide how much I'm going to drink before I go out on the weekend. This works for me. YMMV.
I'm not going to diagnose but my first guess would be that you might be used to a particular drinking pattern. When you step out of that pattern it feels odd. I certainly had this after drinking a glass of wine most evenings in front of the TV. It was part of my switch off from work ritual to separate work from home life. I changed my ritual and cut it out, although I do sometimes have a glass of red wine with an evening meal (but usually once every two weeks, if that).
Currently as I'm on a diet I'm not drinking, although I'm only following my diet during the week (at the weekends I eat and drink sensibly, but don't diet).
You need to decide what you want. If you want to give up alcohol completely then do it. You've managed periods before, and don't see the occasional drink as a failure - think of all the time you're not drinking and see if the time you get back is worth it.
If you want to manage your drinking more effectively then you need to work out in advance a system that works for you. This is harder than stopping drinking and you need to commit to it. I limit my calorie intake, so that kind of determines whether or not I can drink and how much. I also decide how much I'm going to drink before I go out on the weekend. This works for me. YMMV.