Sounds like you can foresee things quite well AG. Gosh by 26 I had been through a ton of scrapes yet I kept on going , trying to moderate and losing but hey I didn't have a problem....I had little to no self awareness
My mental health was ignored too. I just scraped by in college usually leaning on the backs of classmates, and when I went to work I worked hard in some sacrifice to justify my drinking.
I think you see how this is affecting you and for me , I missed it , till it got much worse and many years after 26 a real challenge and amazed I actually came out in one piece.
You here so your acknowledging that drinking is causing problems. I think you can spare yourself further by sticking around and see if you can truly ever drink "normally" without a lot of other side effects. I know now I can't and couldn't then for any period of time but I was in denial of the problem. You stand a good chance to get to this early and set a boundary and enjoy a lot of great years ahead.
Best of luck