My Mother bought me 3 cans of beer from the local off licence when i was 16, i come from the UK so it is easy to buy beer yourself at that age but the guy at the liquor store knew my age...i had never felt better, i drank the 3 beers listening to music and felt like the king of the world...i even asked her to get me some more but she refused.
I left college at 18 and by then would drink alone watching films (before dvd's, old video tapes) which i would rent. I used to drink about 6 beers, that was enough to make me feel good and to keep the buzz going until i went to sleep. I used to go out every so often to clubs and pubs but wasn't that keen, i preferred drinking at home.
By about 22 i had progressed to 4 beers and a bottle of wine, hardly ever finsihed the wine and if i did it was too much (i am a big guy)...it was about 22 when it all went to ****! The alcohol has always calmed me down and made me feel relaxed and now it was making me very angry, i could not get the buzz i was looking for back again...things took a real turn for the worse and i started to be angry during the day too and get no release.
I started to regret drinking the night before and not understanding why i could not just leave it alone, but what was the point really? It had always made me feel great and that feeling would come back it was just a bad patch of some sort, maybe i should go to the gym, move areas, get a new GF...never thought it was the alcohol really...
From there i went through to 38 before getting sober and it got much worse.
IMO the alcohol did the trick for a while and i was self medicating, but it didn't last and that's when my friends left university and started to settle down and i went completely off the rails. I've always had every opporunity in the world and whatever i wanted, you're course, qualification etc will mean nothing if you are like me...
Maybe that's similar to you, maybe not!?
Good luck:-)