KKE

Would you class a binge drinker as an alcoholic?

Katiekate

yes

KKE

Why's that Katie?

Katiekate

I think that anyone who's life is negatively effected by alcohol consistently has a problem with alcohol.

My mothers drinking, although rare, always has a negative impact on her relationships.

LexieCat

Not necessarily. I know binge drinkers who are alcoholics, and others who are not (at least not yet). For example, a lot of kids in college binge drink. It's part of the party culture, and most of them mature out of it (hopefully without serious consequences). It isn't the quantity of alcohol, or the pattern of drinking, that's as important as how you FEEL about drinking.

wolfpackfan45

Sometimes, sometimes not. Many college students binge drink and would fit the criteria for alcoholism, but they're not true alcoholics. They outgrow it once they leave school. Of course, some are. If the binge drinking is having a negative impact on their life and work, then yes.

lillyknitting

Yes

theseithakas

I'd say no. I was definitely a binge drinker in college and law school, but it was something I quickly left behind after I left those situations. Now I drink once a week at most, and never more than 2 or 3 at a time. I do not consider myself to be someone who has a problem with alcohol.

djayr

No. Binge drinking by itself is not proof of alcoholism.

Crazed

I hope not- or I may have bigger problems than I think.

lillamy

Doesn't matter what you call it. If it is something you don't want in your life, you can call it a watermelon if you like - words don't change the fact that you have the right to remove yourself from it.

DarkDays

Someone in denial is what I call binge drinkers.

KKE

I was talking to a friend about it and we were saying how people go out and get wasted and drink to get drunk but not regularly. Was wondering if that's a "problem" or of that's just having a good time. I guess it's all relative but it just doesn't seem completely "healthy" (mentally as well as physically) to feel like you want to get completely trashed when you drink. I dunno, can see it both ways.

LexieCat

I think it's sometimes a sign of problems down the road. People who drink to get drunk do have sort of an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I'd say there are probably a lot of alcoholics like me who binge-drank early on, and then developed alcoholism a little later in life. But I also think there are people who simply go on to other things and don't continue to drink the way they did when they were young.

Bottom line is that it IS something worth being concerned about--sort of a red flag, so to speak, but it isn't in itself alcoholism.

KKE

So almost like the first steps to being an alcoholic if you do become an alcoholic? It progresses type thing?

LexieCat

Alcoholism starts out and manifests itself in different ways for different people. Some people, like my first husband, drank alcoholically from the very first drink.

Me--I drank a lot in college, when my first husband got sober I seldom drank for years and years. After my divorce I met another alcoholic and I started drinking basically to keep up with him. After another period where my second husband was in recovery and I seldom drank, he went back to drinking, I left him, and after that my drinking just progressed.

I know alcoholics who never changed from a pattern of binge-drinking--they never drank on a daily basis. I did. Like I said, it isn't the quantity of alcohol, or the frequency of drinking, so much is it is how you FEEL about alcohol that makes you an alcoholic.

KKE

First drink? Blimey...... I always thought people hated their first drink, bit like your first cigarette!

Jsober

A binge drinker can be alcoholic. I am. I was a weekend binger. I never went to everyday drinking. The problem was once I started drinking I needed to keep drinking. With that came consequences- blackouts, embarassment, loss of self respect/dignity, shame, guilt, and remorse. So glad I don't have to live that way anymore. I did that for 15 years.
I don't know if I ever would have progressed to everyday drinking, I don't think so but who knows- this is progressive. For me, drinking was a major problem and I had to stop because I could not and did not want to moderate. It's not how often you drink it's what happens to you when you drink that determines alcoholism. If you can moderate with ease, great. If moderation is a struggle or not possible, then that is what I would look at.

lizatola

I had to laugh because I was the other way around. I liked my first drink but hated my first cigarette. Funny thing, though, by the time I graduated from college I was smoking 2 packs a day but barely drinking alcohol. Go figure. I quit both right after graduation, I promised myself I wouldn't smoke after college!

spiderqueen

My ABF is a binge drinker. Last year, his mom called EMTs because he was unresponsive after one of these binges. They told her he had a "LETHAL" Blood-Alcohol Content. Think about that. Enough alcohol in his blood to kill a "normal" person.

In the past year, the binges are more frequent and harder core. Meanwhile, he's aging (he'll be 48 next week) and so the effects of his "pattern" of drinking are showing themselves on/in his body more and more.

Is he an alcoholic? Does this label really matter, actually??? The situation is dire, his health/life are at risk, he could easily kill someone with his car if he drove that way, etc. etc. etc.

I am guessing you are fairly young -- I think the effects of this kind of drinking are less obviously terrifying in young people (although some do die of alcohol poisoning and kill people with their cars), and can often become more and more problematic with age.

Just another (sad) perspective.