Binge alcoholism versus day-to-day alcoholism

There is a difference between binge alcoholism and day-to-day or traditional alcoholism. I will discuss this from personal experience. And I don't mean me being an alcoholic because I am teetotal. I'm talking about looking after Jane who is a binge alcoholic and has been for 40 years perhaps.

Jane

I think you will find different definitions of binge alcoholism. For me, and in respect of Jane, it means going long periods without any alcohol at all. This period may last several weeks or up to 3 months. Nowadays, it lasts about 2 to 3 months. In the past this period of abstention lasted for a few weeks. Her binge alcoholism has changed over the years.

Binge alcoholism for Jane follows a schedule with big breaks in-between very heavy drinking.

And I believe that she follows her internal clock. I also believe that she knows when she is going to start a binge. In fact she plans it to a certain extent. That is why, for instance, she binges just after Christmas.

The devastating point is this, her binges last about a month and it takes a month after that to recover, sometimes with a three-week stay in hospital. This very difficult recovery is due to the fact that during her binges she drinks at least one bottle of vodka a day and possibly two or 2 bottles of wine. It is very severe alcoholism. She drinks the vodka neat from the bottle.

I asked her once what she enjoyed about it and she said she likes the rush. But there's pretty well no rush in the middle of a binge. You only get that rush at the beginning and it must be a very severe rush because it's neat vodka or some other spirit which is to hand.

It is very damaging to her health. All the usual dangers accompany this sort of binge drinking such as accidents which can harm the person or kill them in the extreme. Driving while under the influence in going to the shops to buy more booze which has run out is another hazard. 

This can lead to a severe accident and a drink-driving offence. In America this would be a DUI offence and a ban from driving which has happened to Jane.

Or you can die from alcohol poisoning. There is an almost countless number of different types of scenarios all of which can harm the binge drinker.

But as mentioned it is an individual thing. How an alcoholic times their binges and how long the binges last depends upon the person. As does the amount of alcohol that they consume.

But, of course, the longer you are a binge drinker and an alcoholic the more alcohol you consume to get the same effect.

So Jane is a binge drinker with big gaps in between and long binges in between those gaps. It's almost like a three months off and two months on scenario.

Internet research

My research on the Internet about binge drinking produces a different result. Some experts say that binge drinking refers to consuming a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time. It typically involves drinking to the point of becoming intoxicated. That last point I think is pointless because it is always the objective of the binge drinker to become intoxicated.

And the definition refers to "a short period of time". Well, as you can see, in my definition it can be a long period of time of about a month but then there is a break afterwards of a reasonably lengthy period of time.

And this 'expert definition' says that binge drinking "is characterised by heavy alcohol consumption within a two hour period". As you can see it's completely different to my definition. No doubt both are acceptable and correct because there is no definitive definition of "binge alcoholism".

Day-to-day alcoholism

But there is one certainty in that it is different to day-to-day alcoholism which means the alcoholic drinks when they get up and drink throughout the day, go to sleep and then drink when they get up again. They drink all the time in a continuous session. There are no breaks. The person is continually inebriated. Sometimes they can function fairly well because they've got used to it. Sometimes they hold down jobs because they have got used to it.

Work

In contrast, the binge alcoholic is far more likely to lose their job because they disappear for one week, two weeks, four weeks or more. It's impossible for that individual to hold down a job behaving like that. And Jane has been sacked many times. She is now retired because she is beyond retirement age but when she was working, towards the end of her work career, she lost her job several times because of her alcoholism.

I hope this gives a feeling for what binge drinking means and how it differs from day-to-day drinking.

Apologies for any typos but this was prepared at speed. 😊😢