PEN TOOL GLITCH: unable to release a point's shaping handle

I am a heavy user of the pen and other vector drawing tools to create massive vector drawings.  Recently, I noticed an annoying, random, and frequent glitch with the Pen tool which is making it difficult to use.  When I start drawing a new shape, I can successfully create the initial anchor point.  As I continue to expand the shape's path by adding new points, (click and hold to drag open the point's shaping handles before releasing)  the end-point of a shaping-handle sticks to the cursor when I try to release it.  It won't let go.  In fact, it forces you either (1) hit the ESC button and start over or (2) clicking again which shifts the entire point with its handles to the position of the second click which is not the desired location.

The problem follows me from one computer to another.  The problem resurfaces in multiple files.  It is random and probably affects every third or fourth point along a path before I am able to successfully able to close it.

This glitch wastes a lot of time. Is their a patch or a simple trick to make the placement of a shaped point permanent without an extra click or hitting the ESC key and starting over?