frannie

:friday: My A daughter who has never been willing to admit that she has any problems with alcohol...finally admitted this morning (after her incident last night) that she is a binge drinker. She doesn't drink during the week but somtimes on the weekends when she drinks...she lets it get totally out of hand...many times she pulls a big Knee walking drunk. She said that what she thinks what she needs to do is not drink at all. Undoubtedly right...we'll see how she does...i tend to be skeptical and not believe anything she says she will do. But please give me a good defintition of what exactly a binge drinker is. codie Mom may be making some progress (a babystep at a time...but at least now she admits she has a problem). DEFINE BINGE DRINKING PLEASE.

elizabeth1979

Hi Frannie,

My understanding of a binge drinker is a drinker who has 5 or more drinks for a male, and 4 or more drinks for a female on one occasion, more than once in a two-week period. This name is used alot with college and near college aged people I think. I always thought binge drinking was drinking to get drunk. Obviosuly I am not an expert though.....

Good for you and baby steps

Elizabeth

Gabe

This isn't from a book. This is from my experience. My mother was a binge drinker. She would stay sober for a while, then get drunk. When she was drunk she stayed that way, 24/7 for at least a week. I believe the term "binge drinking" implies a person who has periods of sobriety and then periods of drinking, as opposed to a person who drinks on a daily basis.

StandingStrong

From my experience, a binge drinker is someone that can go some length of time without drinking, but when they do drink - they do it big time. Whether it's for a day or months, the drinking is out of control for that period of time. Then the person can go back to not drinking again for awhile.

I think you will find that with binge drinking - there really is no set definition. It depends on the person.

Just as with a binge eater! They may do great for awhile but then have a period of time where they will just over eat like crazy! Only to then go back to being how they were before.

I don't know if that helped you out any, but that's my idea of a binge drinker (and this is what I feel that my husband is)

frannie

Thanks so much for the information...that was more or less what I thought also...Standing Strong, how long does your husband drink when he has a binge? So far my daughter makes a total mess with drinking only one night on a weekend every couple of months. She is only 24, perhaps that is why she only drinks one day and then straightens up. I know that alcoholism is progressive and her binges will probably get longer in duration...or (could i be this lucky?) she could be going through the college stage of binge drinking that many college students go through...I did so myself..I had a great time partying in college but do not drink at all now. I am thinking aloud here...hoping aloud here. Thanks for your support...I am trying to be honest and not be in denial...which is so easy for me to do...I think it is the codie in me that wants to fix her.

gumtrees

Hi Frannie,

I'm new to this site (about 10 minutes ago).

I'm married to a "binge drinker". He used to drink continuously (eg: 2 slabs of beer equivalent to 48 cans of heavy beer) until he was blind and blacked out. Other times he would drink over a period of a few days non-stop. He is an alcoholic and now attends AA.

I suggest you encourage (not force) your daughter to attend an AA meeting, maybe go along with her on first occasion if it would help. The sooner she gets help, the better. Also, I have noticed that once a person starts telling people they have a drinking problem, they are usually asking for help in their own sort of way.

Hope this helps...
gumtrees

quabme

I'm here on the internet trying to figure out how to describe my husbands drinking. After reading some of your notes, I'm thinking 'binge drinker' might be it. He does not have the 'need' to drink. Alcohol does not control his daily life. The problem that arises is that when he does drink, he drinks way too much and he is an ugly drunk. Paranoid, defensive, biligerant and he tend to blame his bad times on me, for some kind of action that he thinks I did that in reality never happened. After another bad experience with just this thing happening Friday night, I again realize that I cannot be around him when he drinks. My parents believe he is an alcoholic but my understanding is that he isn't because he does not drink every day. A big problem is that he love sports, watching, and he prefers to drink beers while watching them. He is at a Super Bowl party as I write this, he already took off work tomorrow because he plans on getting smashed tonight. What do I do? Do I go to Ala-non? He is an alcoholic. Is he a binge drinker? Is he an alcohol abuser? Any thoughts?

escape artist

well i guess the experts say there is a line between being an alcoholic (binge or not) and being a problem drinker. the problem drinkers are the ones who are sane enough to realize that their drinking patterns are causing problems with the rest of their life and they make adjustments-as they know what is important to them. the alcoholic (binge or not) doesn't give a crap about anything except when the next time they get to drink. sometimes they think they are fooling themselves when they hold off on drinking until the time that they can (ie. weekend bingers) however, ultimately they have lost their soul to their addiction and nothing else matters. jmo and hope this helps.

Pick-a-name

All or nothing? Seems like they can stay stopped for sometimes even long periods, but eventually WILL drink again, no matter what problems it has caused them in the past. I have heard that after the first, third, whatever drink "it" kicks in....they keep drinking until they no longer can (however long that is). (This is my understanding of it; others who have already responded and will may be better able to explain.)

Good luck to you both.

minnie

This is an old post, quabme, but welcome all the same.

Why not go to http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...of-alcoholics/ and start a new post to introduce yourself?

Etimee

This is what my father did too. He was a binge drinker. Wouldn't drink for the longest time, then out he drank and would drink and eat for the first 2 days and then the rest of the week, he just drank, no food, until he got sick, was sick for 2 days or so and then back to normal again until the next time. I hated those days! They made me feel so bad and closed inside.

Thank God, he did eventually stop and hasn't touched it in about 15-20 years.

sunshine003

My husband is what I would call a binge drinker. He doesn't drink daily, he'll even go weeks without drinking. But when he does, he drinks way more than even what you'd call excessive. 3 to four drinks is laughable, he'll drink bottles in ONE night. It'll start out in good fun and end with him not stopping. When th enight is over, he can't walk, talk, etc....although he seems to not realize nobody can understand him or that he's stumbling all over the place. It is rarely just a few drinks for him. Im shocked he has never died from how much alcohol he consumes when he drinks. To me, he is a binge drinker. He spends the next day in bed feeling horrible, still half drunk. The day after that, he's back to normal as if he didn't just do that only to do it the next time around.

historyteach

http://www.ias.org.uk/factsheets/binge-drinking.pdf
Probably the best understanding of binge drinking I've ever seen.

I've just gone through about 10 different web sites. Many use the 5 for male; 4 for female level, but, without any justification or exemption for length of time it's consumed, whether there's food involved during the drinking; tolerance level... Frankly, a number devoid of reason is worthless, IMHO.

Growing up has a tendency to lessen the benge drinking.

Shalom!

Justme57

It is really irelevant whether aan Alcoholic is a binge drinker, or a sometimes drinker, or even a daily drinker. If, when they drink, their behaviour is unpredicatable to them, and they have difficulty controlling their intake at that time , it is very likely they have a problem.

It is not how often or even how much, it is the results which are indicative

HUGX
Lee ( alcoholic)

minnie

No-one else going to welcome quabme?

DesertEyes

Hi there quabme, and welcome to SR.

The best place to get answers is at meeting of al-anon. They're in your phone book, you might want to call them up and talk to a real life person. You can also get direction to the closest meeting tonite where you can get all kinds of literature and books to help answer all your questions.

Your post here is kind of "buried" in the discussion. You can click on the "New Thread" in the main forum and a lot more people will be able to see your questions.

Mike :-)

Pick-a-name

........or, for an alcoholic, the binges just start coming closer and closer together...................

quabme

Thank you so much for all of your advise and thoughts I did what some of you suggested and started a new thread. I look forward to going to my first Al-Anon meeting tomorrow night with my sister. I just want to learn how to live with this until he can relize how his drinking affect us and hopefully he loves and cares enough about me and his girls that he will attend AA meetings to help his disease however I do not forsee this happening for a very long time.

harleygirl92156

I had a boss a long time ago that was an alcoholic and a binge drinker. He only drank 3 days each year during our annual city celebration. He would start on Friday and quit on Sunday but he was totally drunk the entire time and didn't remember any of it. The rest of the year he never drank a drop. He was a binge drinker, and unusual one, but a binge drinker none the less.

My husband was a binge drinker too.

My definition is someone who doesn't drink everyday, but when they do drink, they drink to excess or black out. The key is when they are not drinking, they are dry drunk, which isn't pleasant to live with.

Aquiana

I think it sounds very promising that your daughter is admitting that she feels she has a problem with alcohol. I did as well when I was younger. My friends were older than I was, and I got into "proving" that I could keep up with him. We drank almost every day, sometimes all day and used drugs daily. I could tell some really brutal stories about what happened to me back then and what I did to other people. This went on from about 13 to just after my 18th birthday when an incident forced me to look at what I was doing. By that point I couldn't even remember what I'd done the night before if someone asked me. Not all of it at least.

What I'm trying to say is that after I really looked, which sounds like what your daughter is doing now, I stopped. It wasn't really easy. I felt I was missing out sometimes. It can get lonely because you find out that some of your "friends" don't come with you. It took me a long time to be able to go out and not feel the need to get wasted. She really needs your support and to feel like someone is there for her. If she will go to A.A. that's great. Big for me at that point was to find some new activities with people who weren't into that lifestyle. I have a lot of hope that this is just your daughters time to get out.