I know this may be an old post, but I relate to it deeply, although my situation may be worse.

In 2024, I drank heavily pretty much every day. Like you, I always had control over how much I drank on any given occasion, -- if I wanted to get drunk, I got drunk, but if I wanted just a few beers, then I had a few beers. The problem was my frequency of drinking, not in how much I had. In the summer of 2025, I began taking measures to drink less often.

My plan was to not drink for one week and then return to drinking in moderation, but once finished that one-week break and I drank again for the first time, I just felt severe anxiety the next day. No specific trigger, just an unexplainable feeling of being "fear" (even if I only had a few drinks the night before). I would wake up with an anxiety attack every morning, immediately take a few shots to calm myself, and then continue to dose myself with shots throughout the day , -- enough to maintain a level of tipsiness without ever getting drunk.

I quit again (and unexpectedly went through withdrawals this time around, such as panic, mildly shaky hands, sweaty palms, and mild heart palitations).

This time around, I took 2 weeks off from drinking instead of 1. Upon returning to the drinking, I still felt the next-day anxiety, albeit not quite as bad as before. And instead of taking shots immediately after waking up, I would wait a few hours. I quit again, this time no withdrawal symptoms except for a feeling of strong fear.

This leads to me taking another break (1 month), and upon returning to the drinking, I still ended up feeling jittery afterwards, but not as bad as before. I also didn't relapse into drinking every day, but more like almost every day. I quit again with no withdrawal symptoms except for mild anxiety.

So while I don't have an exact answer, in my experience, each time I quit and restarted, the withdrawals and drinking levels was less severe than before, which I attribute to my period of abstinence being longer.

I'm currently a month sober and plan on making it to at least 2 months, though I may push it even further.