Aellyce

It's interesting that some of us drink in bursts and then stop for a little while (like me), and others more stably and consistently, all the time while awake. I always wondered if there is a relationship between these individual tendencies in how we handle addictions and how we also tend to deal with other aspects of our lives. Dunno. As I said above, I did tend to do everything in bursts, including avoiding whatever I did not want to deal with, in "binges" until I could not avoid anymore. No routine in my life. I set my entire life to incorporate this and to be able to afford the flexibility and my eccentric tendencies. It's been a true challenge for me to start learning to have more stability in my life, more routines, more outward predictability. With mostly everything. And I'm pretty much up and down with the routines and stability now and finding it more rewarding and a great source of peace. But sticking with steady behaviors and productivity is still challenging. I have this tendency to very intensely focus on something for a while and often exclude other things during a period... and then change focus and do the same with something else. It may sound a bit ADHD-like, but it's not, I rarely struggle with concentration and focus, more the opposite, I tend to get really immersed in whatever interests me for a while. And binge on it (like with alcohol). Sometimes for long stretches of time. Then the urge is over and I relax a bit, just to restart with something else. It's not even spontaneous, I would usually foresee and plan these bursts of activities.

So I am learning how to do "maintenance" with most of my healthy activities

Soberpotamus

Haennie, I identify with a lot of what you said. And I binged as well. I didn't daily drink. I always thought I drank in a manner similar to the way I approached life in general.

Gottalife

The modern definition of binge doesn't bear any resemblence to what I thought a binge was. I'm gonna have to adopt the AA term of a spree or bender instead, I think. Once I started drinking, provided I had enough money, I would drink and behave insanely for about four days until I was too sick to drink anymore. I never ate.

Two or three days to get over the hangover, then do it again.

Interesting that the Cdc definition states that binge drinkers are not usually alcohol dependent. Going by their definition of a binge, I would have to agree with that.

WritingFromLife

Yes I have always considered a binge short term--as in what college kids do when the turn 21, or what we may do starting early afternoon and ending when we passed out that night. Wake up hungover, but don't continue to drink.

A bender--when one is drunk for days (or weeks)--this is proceeded by a stint of sobriety, relapse, and then the bender begings as one drinks until he/she is willing to undergo the withdrawal process and start sobriety again.

SoberLife2014

A binge for me was basically drinking until I was too wasted to drink anymore or I passed out. That was usually 2 bottles of wine or a 12 pack of beer, but sometimes I probably could have drank more...

MissOverIt

This is me too SoberJennie. I would regularly go 2 to 3 days without drinking but I knew the second I bought wine I would be back and back to the store again until I passed out- which on a good week was 2 times but most weeks it was about 4. So when you really think about it I wasn't really "sober" even when I wasn't actively poring wine down my face. Luckily for the world the store was in walking (or staggering) distance.

Fishcakes4

I can agree with that, I do not need to drink, don't do it at home really and if I do its 1 or 2 or if we're having a fire a bit more, I haven't had one craving in 8 days, I binged as a coping with stress mechanism, now that I have other ways of dealing with stress, I don't wanna drink, once I am out socially and have one or two, I couldn't stop. I also didn't eat when I was out binge drinking. Also there would be some weeks where I would binge 3-4 times even more then I'd go two weeks without doing it or even a month but when I did finally do it I made extremely bad choices that almost ruined my relationship and family.

Thomasthetank

Well, I would drink around 8 pints if I were having a "moderate" night. I distinctly remember thinking to myself "I basically didn't drink anything last night!".

A normal night, around 12.

A binge? I don't remember. Something over 20.

I'm very lucky my health is not worse than it is.

Fishcakes4

Mine too, I'm a woman and not an overweight one, was before but I lost 45lbs this year(kind of weird considering how much I drink) and can easily outdrink most males I know plus some. the CDC says 2-4 drinks for a woman in 2 hours, I could finish 12 in that time plus half a bottle of whiskey. I'm pretty much the exact definition of a binger.

Changel

I would define a "binge" as any amount of alcohol that gets someone 'slurred speech' drunk. Someone could wake up after a binge and function through the hangover.

A "bender" would be when someone stays drunk day and night for days to weeks at a time.

heartcore

My understanding of binge drinking is that you don't drink daily, don't sometimes drink for weeks, don't have the physical dependence that causes shakes, early morning drink, etc., but that when you do drink, you drink to passing-out, alcohol poisoning, "wait, what am I doing in Mexico City?" excess. I've heard that this is more dangerous for your body than folks who consistently drink every day.

Haennie - I have the same obsessive tendencies about pretty much everything in my life - work, projects, information/research, substances, and people. I am diagnosed with ADD - note the absence of the "H" - (I don't medicate for it at this point in my life). The way it was explained to me is that attention disorders are just as likely to involve hyper-focus on a single topic, to the exclusion of other things that you need to do. I am the woman who can spend 10 hours straight researching or writing on the computer (barely moving, because I am so deeply engaged), but "doesn't have time" or the inclination to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I, too, structured my life to accommodate my hyper-focus, and have labored to shift it from being a deficit to an asset. As long as my "work" holds my interest and captures that attention, I am very successful at my career. In jobs in which my interests dwell outside my role, I am a profoundly inefficient worker (because I'm busy hyper-focusing on another topic or activity, rather than working).

I've heard that the expression of ADD is distinct across genders, with the hyper-focus tendency (as well as the getting caught in obsessive thinking or daydream) more often a female expression.

None of that really matters though, as I don't believe we can label brain functioning as "dysfunctional" or disordered; instead I see that we give names to dominant patterns of function. My gifts from my tendencies far outweigh my challenges, so I've come to peace with my sweet little obsessional brain.

MrJames

A binge for me was whatever it took to numb the pain and take myself away from the problem instead of dealing with it and trusting our Higher Power to guide us to a solution to the issue. In otherwords, it was one drink all the way up to a couple of days of being in that "numb" state of mind outside my normal sober self. Hope that helps! :-)

Fiona630

Binge drinkng to me is drinking until I pass out. I would go a couple days up to maybe even 4 days then do it again. There was no just a few. Once I had one I had to have more. Once in a great while I would go out and have to really control it but it was very hard to do and as soon as I got home I would always have some waiting for me. If I have a day off I was drinking the night before so I could sleep in.

Fishcakes4

Me too, I never plan, I have no routine, and I binge in other aspects of my life too, I hate cleaning but I'll do it in binges and won't sleep until I'm done even.

Aellyce

Heartcore - interesting! That description definitely fits me, I was chuckling reading it. I was actually evaluated by a psychiatrist twice this year (back in the summer) and we went through the tendencies that cause me problems thoroughly. I do forms of this weekly with my therapists also. I definitely fit very well several symptoms of mental disorders (other than alcohol use and anxiety, that clearly reach DSM level), but not enough to reach the diagnostic criteria they use. Bipolar II was like that, and this phenomenon with intense focus (or struggling dealing with things that do not interest me). So we discussed ADD/ADHD also, and the two symptom areas I have that fit are this selective focus, and procrastinating tendencies. The procrastinating is most interesting... that was one of my major goals when I started therapy, to get to the bottom of why I do that... long story, but basically for me, it seems to be more related to anxiety than anything else. So my therapist taught me several ways to tackle this type of anxiety, and I learned more from the literature - it's really working, I'm very happy about that.

I also derived lots of advantages and successes from my intense interests and obsessiveness. It's just that I need to keep it a little more balanced.

Diagnoses and classification in the mental health field have always been challenging (why they are updating the DSM periodically) since these issues are not distinct categories but most often move across overlapping spectra within and between categories. Tricky and not always clear, just like defining what "binging" or a "binger" is.

Fishcakes - I am actually a planner and strategist, except when I was an active drinker. I sometimes struggle with spontaneity. Part of this is exactly the "hyperfocus" (what I call binging on various areas of life) - I do like to plan these activities, then start them and get hooked until I've exhausted the area and myself. Lack of routine for me refers to lack of conventional structure and disliking repetitions. But then look what I had done to myself with drinking like a broken record...

Dee74

Binging was everytime I drank.

Normies drink. I chased & courted oblivion.

D

Serenidad

For me it is slamming 4-6 beers really fast & chain smoking then going to a bar. When I get to the bar I order a couple mixed drinks and drink them fast. Then I order a few shots and beers to chase it with. After that I'm not really sure what I drink. I'm just drunk.

Oh and by the way I make sure I have an empty stomach before I drink and would never eat while I'm drinking! Buzz kill! Lol

My goal when I start drinking is the same every single time....to drink as much as I can as fast as I can. I don't stop until I am either kicked out of the bar, passed out in the bathroom of the bar, in the parking lot scratching my kid and wondering how I got there AGAIN, puking, peeing my pants (I know! Gross!) blah blah blah.

Then I am sooooo hungover the next day that you couldn't PAY me to drink. I start to feel better by dinner. The next day after that I'm fine and making promises to never drink again. Then by the 4th day I repeat the cycle!

Day 1: binge drink
Day 2: hungover
Day 3: determined to quit
Day 4: binge drink (vicious insane cycle!)

The good news...I'm sober now and was sober yesterday and plan to be sober tomorrow!

So that's my definition and that's how I drink every time I drink! It's always the same! Hell!

Great topic!!!

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Serenidad

I agree!

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Nuudawn

As little as 1 bottle of wine...especially red as I would choose red because my toleration for it appeared to be lower. I got drunker..made more of an idiot of myself with red. I could still walk after a bottle of white. For some odd reason I could pass out/black out from just a bottle of red sometimes...especially when it was "dinner". That is not to say I would limit myself to that though. I'm sure I kept drinking in blackouts ..if it was around.

Serenidad

I disagree with the CDC completely about binge drinkers not really being alcoholics! All the friends and family members I've lost to alcoholism started as binge drinkers (a couple nights a week like I drank) and eventually the gap started to close as their disease progressed.

Once they got to the stage where they were drinking daily it went downhill fast for them and they died. I definitely think there are different "stages" to alcoholism just like any disease.

The nice thing about alcoholism is there are treatments that work and we CAN get better! We don't have to die! We CAN stop before it gets worse if we really work hard.

Again, really like this topic!

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