To answer your question, I would say this, while it may not be "common" and happen to everyone, or every other person, there is going to be a fairly large percentage of people reacting in exactly the same way you are. Plus you have to remeraber, this may not all have to do with you having some sort of physical reaction to not drinking. This could also be (and I'd actually be surprised if it wasnt) to some degree, a psychosomatic response from the stress you're putting on yourself in trying to stop drinking. As crazy as it might sound, you might actually be making things worse by worrying about how bad things are gonna be, instead of just dealing with it as it happens.
And as to the exact why, and how it is that a person who doesnt drink every day could still share that same restlessness and psychological feelings of withdrawal that a day in day out binge drinker does, it simply comes down to each individuals pattern of addiction. Or as an example, you could have an individual who only binge drinks to the point of losing control, and blacking out on the weekend. During the week the person could be totally sober, so no one would think anything of that persons actions on the weekend. The thing is though, if you were to go and take this persons weekenRAB away from them, and break that habitual behavior, that person very likely would start to exhibit some of those very same withdrawal symptoms even though they were in the past able to go 4 and 5 days on many occasions without a drink before this and not ever exhibit anything even close to an addictive tendency.
Its all about those rituals and repetitions that addicts set up for themselves, its the thing that drives them, and makes their world go round.
