Groundhog83

Ok I’m 38 UK. Binge culture has really messed me up. Incapable of having one beer, zero or oblivion. Is this normal?

Lost so many jobs due to horrific hangovers and anxiety.

Why o why do I repeat.

Is binge the next epidemic?

WeThinkNot

I am also incapable of one drink, suffered bad consequences because of my drinking, and would still go out and repeat my behavior day after day. It's because I am an alcoholic. My recommendation is to quit drinking forever and work a plan of recovery that suits you.

I'm 40 years old with almost two years of sobriety so I was your age when I decided to finally get sober. I thought I was a lost cause and likely so did many of my peers and my family. After putting in the work I have learned to love myself for the first time and life is finally beautiful for me. I believe it can be beautiful for anybody who wants it.

I wish you luck on your journey.

fini

Incapable of having one beer, zero or oblivion. Is this normal?
no arbiter here of what is "normal", but no, no it's not.
most people have one or two and leave it there.
so if you and i can't/don't do that, our drinking is not "normal".
more to the point: are you wanting to stop drinking?

Dee74

I wouldn't hold the Australian culture I grew up to blame for my alcoholism.

It might have given me a lot of playmates - but most of them knew when to quit.

I did not.

I didn't want to quit drinking because my drinking had come to define me - but it was either quit or die.

Not much of a choice really. I chose quit and things got a lot better - not right away - but inevitably

D

Lpg

I'm from UK too and used to think binge drinking Culture was to blame for my drinking, but since quitting iv realised that actually I just thought everyone was binge drinking just like me too, cos I wanted to believe that. My friends actually never drink the way I did and its only since getting sober I see that.
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I drank this way my whole life it was causing havoc, ruining relationships, anxiety, guilt. And becoming more frequent not just weekends but eating into middle of the week. quitting is the only solution for me, I tested out many ways of control and none worked.

August252015

From what I hear, it's not unique to the UK (or AUS) to see the binge culture all around, as the norm, unavoidable, etc.

I can't tell you "why o why" - I can say for me, growing up with the social world of country clubs, cocktail parties, debutante balls, sororities,then fancy dates, sales calls - none of it made me the alcoholic I am.

And...I'd venture that for most of us, the real questions is: what will you do about your (own) drinking?

ScottFromWI

Using substances addictively is nothing new unfortunately. It's an individual phenomenon in my opinion, and one that only the individual can address. Certainly working with support groups and communities can be a key component of recovery, but accepting our addiction and making the choice to live/deal/treat it is purely an internal decision. Blaming external entities ( cultre, society, social media, etc ) is not helpful as those things will always exist.