alphaomega

It is so interesting that there are such a vast amount of personal definitions as to what a "binge" entails.

Its completely subjective.

For me it would be a night holed up with two bottles of Chardonnay.

Findingtheway

For me it was starting drinking...only to end it when someone ELSE decided it was time to stop/take it away.

These past couple of times...It wasn't me that stopped. That's for sure.

Ghostlight1

For me it was three or four days of doing nothing but drinking. Day and night. Not eating, bottle by the bed drunk. But, that's just me.

GracieLou

I was a daily drinker but what I have witnessed in others was several days in a row of continuous drinking. If there is sleep it is more in line with passing out and continuing to drink again upon waking with no break from alcohol in between. Literally drinking 24/7 with no break in consumption.

The only time I did not drink was when I was asleep or at work. The rest of the time I drank. I labeled myself a daily or maintenance drinker. I could say I binged on the weekends. I picked up the bottle after work on Friday and didn't stop until Sunday evening when I passed out but I also drank all week long.

Soberwolf

binge drinking | The Fix

FreeOwl

pretty much whenever I drank more than I'd set out to drink and looked back on it with remorse... I consider that a 'binge'.

but for me it was also pretty glaring - like buy a fifth of vodka and finish it in a night. Most people would consider that a binge.

FeenixxRising

I consider a binge to be drinking enough to become extremely intoxicated in a short period of time. I believe that definition is close to the technical definition, so that works for me.

CDC - Fact Sheets-Binge Drinking - Alcohol

PurpleKnight

I was a bottle of whisky in front of the TV man, drinking until I passed out was a regular thing.

I guess people use the term "binge" to define dangerous volumes of alcohol in one sitting compared to a drink or two which is completely safe and exercised by "normal" drinkers, they don't drink themselves into a black out or needing an ambulance due to alcoholic posining.

I was in Belfast in the North of Ireland for a weekend once upon a time for an Eric Clapton gig, that night I met some americans in the hotel bar after the gig and they were asking me about the best Irish whiskey to try and of course being the connoisseur alcoholic that I was had all the answers, I even started buying rounds to try them out, it ended with me ordering shots, a famous Irish one is a "mini Guinness", in the space of 2hrs my blood alcohol level shot through the roof and I collapsed outside the hotel and an ambulance had to be called, I awoke in the hospital to a nurse giving me the 3rd degree on my drinking.

This was one of the most dangerous binges I ever had . . . and still I continued to drink, madness!!

Aellyce

For me pretty much every time I drank, I would tend to do it excessively. Even long before drinking clearly presented as a problem in my life. There rarely was such a thing as a glass or two of wine in my life. It's just that in the first ~15 years after starting drinking in my teens, I would do it infrequently, so I did not consider that as heavy or a problem.

I also had a tendency to binge on pretty much anything I like if I let it: information, books or music or movies from my favorite artists, interaction, traveling, foods I like, thinking, intimacy, physical exercise that I like... Recovery, for me, is pretty much changing a gigantic web of obsessive tendencies.

Fishcakes4

I am a binger, I can have 2-3 fine and stop at home, but if I'm out, 2-3 beers turns into at least 14-20 beers and lots of shots of whiskey, fruity type shots and jag bombs and not coming home until the next morning or drinking until black out.

courage2

I was mostly a daily maintenance drinker, nursing 1/2 a liter of straight gin throughout the day. I generally avoided getting out-and-out drunk. When I went on binges, for me, it was drinking fast to get loaded fast and not stopping until I collapsed.

Lusher

Ditto!

EndGameNYC

Me too.

With one notable exception: I started drinking at work several months before I was finally fired. So I pretty much drank during that time only when I was awake.

RevivingOphelia

Same for me / insert Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio

I would always take at least the next day off and usually two days and then back to a two bottle night (and sometimes more).

Soberpotamus

I was technically a binge drinker almost every time I drank. As for my definition or standard, personally... yeah, I pretty much set out to drink 1.5 - 2 bottles of chardonnay, pinot, merlot, or cabernet each time I drank. And I'd drink 2-5 days per week typically.

I had more control over the first drink than I did after having a few. I could go days without (but I'd obsess), but give me that first glass and I was off to the races.

snowbunting

Any time I drink it is a binge, because I never know when to stop.

MelindaFlowers

Great question. I've always wondered. I was very consistent. 12-14 units if alcohol seven days a week, 365 days a year. Well, there were probably 10 or so days where I was either too hungover to drink or couldn't get my hands on any. I used to call myself a daily binger. I never missed work either.

Even with my 90'ish units a week, I never drank before 5 pm. Never at work or during days on weekends. Too sick Saturday and Sunday morning!

I think of a real binge as when someone does the three/four day thing. Calls off work, barely leaves the house.

Even with my twisted alcoholic mind, I could never fathom drinking straight for four days. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to, but I don't think my body could have done it.

I knew I wasn't a binge drinker because I NEVER had only a few. I'm reading posts of people who had a few sometimes and then WHAM has a binge.

I have no kids, family in another state. I guess I never had a reason not to drink a ton.

enfinthechange

I could drink a few fine most of the time, but unexpectedly, every week or two or month or two, bam, 10 pints, or 2 bottles wine... and urgh... felt so ill. it crept up, sown, up down... until its not worth the knife edge.

Stevie1

Interesting, ignorance fought. I'd have defined binge drinking as a protracted drunk - at least two days of constant drinking, passing out, waking up, rinse and repeat.

RevivingOphelia

That's true for me too. Even in the beginning, never stopped at a couple. It was ALWAYS to get drunk.