Binge Drinking Facts

73

By jackburton

Are you binge drinking?  A lot of people don't see party as a party unless somebody drinks too much and passes out, or pukes all over the place. How many times have you been in the centre of the city on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and seeing groups of young people staggering up and down the city streets, drunk out of their minds. This is the fault of binge drinking.

Today's version of binge drinking is any consumption of alcohol that exceeds the safe limit. This limit is 21 units of alcohol for a man, and 14 units of alcohol for a woman.

There are caveats to this modern version of binge drinking. These limits are based on a weekly intake of alcohol. They do not give license to drink all the units at one go. You must split it down to 3 units a day for a man, and 2 units per day for a woman.

The Unit Of Alcohol

What does a unit look like. One unit of alcohol equals either half a pint of beer, one glass of wine, or a single pub measure of spirits. Alcopops, such as Bacardi Breezer, contain 1.5 units of alcohol.

Alcohol is a depressant. That means a drug which reduces nervous activity, it slows you down, both your brain and your body. All it takes is a couple of drinks and most of your inhibitions take a back seat. Your co-ordination starts to get jumpy, you begin to lose your memory, and you are no longer in control of your judgment. The more you drink, the more danger you are in.

Binge Drinking

Here's an example of a typical person who is out binge drinking. He's out on the town and drinks his first couple pints. He starts to get more talkative and loud as his inhibitions are waning. After 4 or 5 pints he feels a bit bloated, so he goes on to the shots, whiskey. Over the next two hours he knocks back 10 whiskeys. At this stage his alcohol level has is around 0.4%.

This is enough for him to go into a coma. Once there, he wouldn't feel any pain. His heart would beat erratically, his breathing would slow, and his body temperature would drop dramatically. He would be at risk of choking on his own vomit, having a seizure, heart-attack, and long-term brain damage.

The weekends are always the busiest time for the accident and emergency departments in our hospitals. And people do die. Most of the people who visit A&E are only just past childhood. They haven't got the mental capacity or the physical maturity to handle the amount of alcohol that they're consuming.

Be careful what you drink. You may have one too many and then it will be too late.

You must call the emergency services if someone you are drinking with shows any of these symptoms:

If they pass out and cannot be woken.

Slow breathing, or no breathing.

Seizures.

Vomiting in their sleep.

While you're waiting for the emergency services to arrive you must put them in the recovery position, which is on their side to keep them from choking on their own vomit.

If you are having problems with your alcohol consumption you should talk with your doctor. You may need to undertake a process of Alcohol Detox. You can do this at home with the help from your physician. Or you may need to attend anAlcohol Detox Center for some inpatient Treatment.Thank you for visiting this hub about binge drinking.


Binge Drinker

Is this your child?
Is this your child?

Binge Drinkig Comments

sixtyorso profile image

sixtyorso 2 years ago

Great information. Good hub. Well laid out. A warning indeed.

baDDBOY! 2 years ago

you guys are hella gay!!!

SEX123 2 years ago

I BINGE DRINK ALL DAY EVERY DAY!

Miss.Know It All 20 months ago

@ SEX123....If you even read the article, this would classify you as an alcoholic.

N.E. Wright profile image

N.E. Wright 20 months ago

Hello Jack Burton,

I really enjoyed this very informative Hub.

When one thinks of Binge drinking they -- I -- usually associate it with frat parties in college.

Not that I know about that stuff, but I know someone who has done this once.

He heard he did some really strange things that was not in his character, and he cannot -- to this day -- remember any of it. It scared him.

Thanks for sharing. Great Hub!!!

aarti 16 months ago

I appreciate you doing this article. However, this article minimizes the definition of binge drinking to the extreme kind of intoxication which can lead to death or coma.

Binge drinking is a drinking style or pattern, unfortunately common in our culture, which is the type of drinking that puts people at HIGH RISK for developing a drinking problem, as in alcoholism

This pattern of binge drinking refers to when a man has five or more drinks or a woman has four or more drink in one night. The faster you drink the alcohol and especially if you drink it on an empty stomach, all affect how quickly you get 'drunk' or intoxicated.

Therefore, getting 'drunk' or intoxicated every weekend puts us at risk of becoming alcoholics. Does that mean we all do? Of course not, but the point is that it is very important not to drink with the INTENTION to get drunk and to count your drinks and stick to your limit.

In case you are wondering, I drink and I drink on weekends too, but I have never puked or had a hang over - I think in our culture it would be nice to see more people make an effort to learn to have a good time without a good time being dependent on their alcohol level.

jackburton profile image

jackburton Hub Author 15 months ago

There are many levels of binge drinking and you are right in that all it takes is to go over the 'safe limit' to be a binge drinker. But, the reason I wrote the article was to point out the ever increasing popularity of drinking until a person can no longer function. Everyone can recover from drinking a few too many on occasion. This is a 'normal' part of the drinking cycle...if you drink at all then you are more than likely going to get to this level at times, we all do...and maybe even puke...

But there are many people, especially youngsters, who have no other intention than to go drinking until they get completely paralytic, not just once....but every single time they drink. Drinking to them is not social it is a way of completely escaping from reality.

In an ideal world, we would all count our drinks and stop when we reached that safe limit. Getting drunk is also a personal thing...one drink can make a person 'tipsy'...is this not a form of drunkeness. One and a half drinks puts me over the legal limit to drive where I come from, therefore I am legally drunk with one and a half drinks!

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