I'll have the occasional normal glass of wine or the occasional beer during hours in a "it's a nice drink" sort of way not a "I'd really like alcohol now" way. I think even more often than that like a regular drink at lunch or something isn't uncommon for people but IMHO if you're getting over the legal limit (during work) then you're taking things a bit far. Nothing wrong with calling it a day early or with having fun outside of doing work once in a while but if you're not fit to drive you're not fit to teach or invest - regardless whether you feel like you are or can get away with doing so most of the time.

Same with "And no, I don't crave alcohol.". If you feel you have low productivity, low drive, and low passion without alcohol so you're going to restart drinking with hopes all that comes back then... you crave alcohol you have just separated the thing from the effects in an effort to make it seem like it's somehow not the alcohol you crave it's something else.

Now I have no idea what "tripled my drinking" is in quantity or anything but the general attitude about how you view it all makes me just as uneasy about reading the question regardless.