Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad???

[Dino Velvet]

I like drinking and when I do I drink heavily. I would be classified as a "Binge Drinker". I don't see what the problem is. To lose my binge drinking status I would have to drink every day and that could be expensive. I tend to black out occasionally but when I wake up the next morning I see I've always washed all the dishes after my drunken snack and I don't leave the stove on either.

[Felicia Katt]

do some of your posts coincide with those blackouts?

FK

[gummi baer]

If you are satisfied with your life, then there is no problem. (As long as you don't kill anybody while in a blackout---but you wouldn't know if you did, would you? Or if you didn't---the police love people like that.)

[Quiet Reflections]

it damn sure isn't good for you but what thats fun is? If you went to AA you would be considered an alcoholic as well as a binge drinker. Watch out for those blackouts too they only get worse.

[blckhaze]

the drinking may not kill you
but the angry boyfriends coming home after working the night shift will.

[Dino Velvet]

do some of your posts coincide with those blackouts?

FK

Not sure. I don't remember.

[generalchaos34]

Ill put it this way, those blackouts you are having are caused by BRAIN DAMAGE occuring when you are not getting enough oxygen. The alcohol you are consuming is replacing the water and other oxygen carrying red cells in your blood stream, limiting the amount of oxygen that gets to travel around your body. Your liver gets so overloaded from heavy amounts of alcohol that it also cant handle the amount of booze in your system and its also sustaining serious damage. a little booze now and then, some drinking here and there is fine, but over all, you are going to ruin your liver and your brain functions with binging. If you keep it up, YOU WILL DIE. more importantly, you could be driving when you are blacked out, and you can KILL other people, so get help please!

[eclipsemint]

Hey! I'm not as think as you drunk I am!!

Edit: Seriously, though. I gave up binge drinking a couple of years ago after an incident I experienced. I am in my mid forties and had a similar drinking habit described by the OP, though never so severe as to cause blackouts or spontaneous washing up.

One Monday morning I went to work with a slight hangover after drinking the night before - scotch and coke. (note: public transport to work, not driving).

I noticed that I was having trouble seeing the center of my computer monitor and I thought the monitor was malfunctioning. However, the truth was that I was experiencing temporary alcohol blindness. The alcohol stops the metabolism of vitamin B and the retina of the eye is very sensitive to vitamin B deficiency. Hence the expression "Blind drunk". The body metabolises the toxic alcohol in your body first as a urgent defense mechanism.

The problem for me corrected itself within 12 hours as my body finished metabolising the alcohol still in my body. It was enough to scare me off alcohol for quite a while though and now if I drink it is only wine or beer - it is way too easy to overdose quickly with hard liquors like scotch or bourbon.

Blindness and blackouts are a sign of severe alcoholic toxicity: (blood alcohol of 2.0 or more.)

Hope this anecdote helps you.

[altarica]

I used to drink....A lot, in fact a hell of a lot.
Now I don't and you know what? I don't miss it in the slightest.
Have made far better and more genuine friends these days than the arseholes I used to hang out with in the pub and I include myself in that description.
But that's just me.

[Quiet Reflections]

Ill put it this way, those blackouts you are having are caused by BRAIN DAMAGE occuring when you are not getting enough oxygen. The alcohol you are consuming is replacing the water and other oxygen carrying red cells in your blood stream, limiting the amount of oxygen that gets to travel around your body. Your liver gets so overloaded from heavy amounts of alcohol that it also cant handle the amount of booze in your system and its also sustaining serious damage. a little booze now and then, some drinking here and there is fine, but over all, you are going to ruin your liver and your brain functions with binging. If you keep it up, YOU WILL DIE. more importantly, you could be driving when you are blacked out, and you can KILL other people, so get help please!

That is one hell of a first post!