NeverQuit

So I just read a recent CDC report on Binge Drinking and among the statements are these:

Binge drinking is a dangerous and costly public health problem.

• It is important to consider the amount people drink when they binge and how often they do so.
• Most alcohol-impaired drivers binge drink.
• Most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics.
• More than half of the alcohol adults drink is while binge drinking.
• ...

CDC Features - Vital Signs: Binge Drinking

So Bingers are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics? If they binge 4-6 times a month and say they will not stop because "it's fun" and they prefer drinking over saving their marriage then just what are they?

Hevyn

It sounded very confusing to me, too NeverQuit.

Freedom1990

I'd take that article with a grain of salt.

I know plenty of binge-drinking alcoholics, myself included. I was always a binge drinker.

I am there are plenty of variables in exactly how they arrived at that conclusion. How would they know most binge drinkers aren't alcohol dependent/alcoholics? Who is reporting the data that they got that figure from?

PurpleWilder

Delusional.

Linkmeister

Delusional is right.

Thumper

It makes sense to me. It doesn't say binge drinkers can't be alcoholics - it is saying that most binge drinkers are not alcoholics. It does say more then half of alcoholics binge drink.

For example only (not real numbers) take 100 binge drinkers and you might have 25 alcoholics. Take 100 alcoholics and you might have 75 binge drinkers. The %'s are different.

Binge drinking is 4 or more drinks for a women and 5 or more drinks for a man. I'd say there are tons of people that drink that much 4 times a month and they are not alcoholics. When I was in college about 95% of the people I knew would meet that criteria and they certainly weren't alcoholics. Probably 40% of the kids in my high school met that criteria. I can't honestly say what happens in my current age group because I don't socialize.

IMO the danger in equating alcoholic and binge drinker is that the large large number of non-alcoholic binge drinkers just ignore all the warnings etc. that go along with it because they are not alcoholics.

Also - we all see this through clouded vision of living through the destruction of alcoholism. I don't see where the article mentions loss of marriage, jobs etc. It does site increased crime and loss of productivity due to binge drinking.

I do agree that binge drinking is a dangerous and risky behavior for anyone - not just those with full blown alcoholism.

MyBetterWorld

I agree, Thumper. I am no aloholic, but if I go out for drinks with friends chances are I will have at least 4. I might do that twice in a month, and then not again for 6 months. I think the article was poorly written, but if you can get passed that it makes some bit of sense.

m1k3

I have to agree with Thumper. Some alcoholics are binge drinkers and some binge drinkers are alcoholics but it is not all binge drinkers are alcoholics or all alcoholics are binge drinkers. I know my view of what is and isn't alcoholic behavior has been distorted by living with an alcoholic.

Your friend,

laurie6781

Do you know of any FEDERAL Government report that gets it right?

I don't.

CDC is funded by, bossed by, and owned by our 'wonderful' (said sarcastically) federal government.

Well they said about 38,000,000 folks binge drink. It has long been accepted by the scientific medical community that about 10% of a given population will be alcoholic. I know Russia has always been higher. So our 'population' here in the States is just about 310,000,000 now. So just a bit, about 7,000,000 above 10%.

Oh well. Once again with the feds, the right hand does NOT know what the left hand is doing.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

Chino

It seems that the CDC is approaching this from a medical and behavioral angle. It is my understanding, after studying addiction from the neuroscience angle, that abuse of anything that fires up the pleasure center of the brain is addiction. It doesn't matter how often or for how long. Neuroscience identifies dopamine deficiency and inefficiency as the holy grail of addiction. An individual with balanced and efficient dopamine will not abuse any substance or activity that fires up the pleasure center of the brain. Doing so will make them chemically imbalanced and they won't like the experience, won't repeat the action.

I'm a 3-4 times a year binge drinker. Nothing and no one can coerce me into binge drinking when my entire nervous system is running like a well oiled machine. I have zero desire. The medical and behavioral health community say I have addictive personality traits and that's why I binge when I do. Science says I binge because I'm temporarily imbalanced, and abusing a substance makes me an addict when I do. My brain operates and looks no different from an active addict during a binge.

I don't have a problem with the scientific definition. It is what it is. I do have a behavioral problem, though, with finding healthier alternatives for raising my dopamine when it's low. It's always been so easy to go out and catch a buzz.

PaperDolls

Even among alcoholics there are different definitions or perceptions of what an alcoholic is. I'm a binge drinking alcoholic ....... but I used my drinking habits (not a daily drinker) as an excuse to not do something about it. It's worrisome to me the way they worded it. There are lots of people that visit SR that feel like something is not going right but that it's not possible for them to be alcoholic because they only binge drink.

I wonder if the CDC would say a person who just binges on crack or heroin is not a drug addict.

And laurie .... well said. *sigh*

Tuffgirl

Thanks Laurie - I was thinking of the very same thing as I scrolled through this thread!

Is the CDC nuts? It's a government entity...maybe not "nuts" but very constricted with what they can and can't research and publish.! Who knows - Jack Daniels, Inc. may have funded the study that produced that paper.

Thumper

So do you guys really think that someone that goes out on Saturday nights and has 6 drinks over the course of the evening is an alcoholic?

That is a serious question. Part of my issue when I was younger is that I did not recognize alcoholism. I didn't know it when I saw it because of the amount of alcohol consumption I saw all over the place and considered 'normal'. My views have changed considerably from then but maybe I still don't really have a good picture of it ya know?

i know you can't answer for specific people or all people but I mean just in general.

m1k3

Also I thought binge drinking was not only how much you drank but the period of time in which you drank it.

I could have 4 or 5 beers over the course of a summer cook out yet never have more than 1 an hour and a bac that is well below being legally drunk.

I think we may be painting with too broad of strokes.

Your friend,

Tuffgirl

I don't think so. I've done it. It was my pattern when I was younger....way younger...to go out on the weekends and drink like that.

As I got older I quit that, for a variety of reasons. I got married, had kids, went back to college, hated the hangovers, too expensive, etc. Now I drink socially, never having more than 2...maybe 3 at a time if its a special occasion.

In my experience, alcoholism was evident when my loved ones couldn't stop drinking like that. And it became an everyday occurrence, not just a weekend thing. It was as if they had no "stop" switch in their head.

Chino

I'm 100% certain I'm dopamine deficient a few times a year

This is from neuroscientist David Linden:

While most people are able to achieve a certain degree of pleasure with only moderate indulgence, those with blunted dopamine systems are driven to overdo it. Linden explains, "In order to get to that same set point of pleasure that others would get to easily — maybe with two drinks at the bar and a laugh with friends — you need six drinks at the bar to get the same thing."

Google "Compass of Pleasure by David Linden."

LaTeeDa

Some probably are. Most probably are not. Which is exactly what the article says.......

L

Thumper

i will make a note to do that when I have more time.

Thank you. I'm really very interested in this.

PaperDolls

Making a blanket statement that "most binge drinkers are not alcoholics" isn't a smart move in my opinion. Like I said before, it was something I used as an excuse to keep drinking (not that I didn't have others!). Because I was only a binge drinker and not a daily drinker I knew I wasn't near as "bad" as all those other drunks. *shrug*

If you'd like to know any more of my opinions - I give them freely, often with out even being asked.

Chino

From the original posted report:

Follow the U.S. Dietary Guidelines on alcohol consumption; if you choose to drink, do so in moderation— no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men. Pregnant women and underage youth should not drink alcohol.

also from the CDC site:

*Binge drinking means men drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a short period of time or women drinking 4 or more drinks within a short period of time.

From masslive.com:

The report does not specify the period of time over which beverages are consumed to be considered binge drinking and CDC officials did not respond to requests for clarification.

Clear as mud? LOL