What are the dangers of binge drinking?

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What are the dangers of binge drinking?

04 October, 2019Articles, News

Alcohol is one of the leading causes of health issues around the world, including in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that about 88,000 people die every year from alcohol-related causes, which include acute problems like car accidents and chronic problems like liver cancer. Excessive drinking is the cause of 10 percent of deaths among working-age adults, between 20 and 64 years old.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is on the rise in the US, but it is not the only cause of alcohols impact on health. Heavy drinking and binge drinking contribute towards deaths and chronic health problems associated with alcohol.

What Is the Definition of Binge Drinking?

The liver can metabolize about one serving of alcohol per hour. Serving sizes for alcohol include:

One 350ml bottle of beer

One 150ml glass of wine

One 45ml shot of hard liquor

Drinking more than one serving of alcohol per hour increases the likelihood that the person will become intoxicated. The legal limit is 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC). At this point, it is no longer legal to drive nor operate heavy machinery. People who are drunk in public are also at risk of being cited or arrested for public indecency, depending on how drunk they are.

Binge drinking involves consuming multiple servings of alcohol in a short period of time, generally in less than an hour or two. The basic definition of binge drinking is:

Four drinks or more in two hours for women
Five drinks or more in two hours for men

According to the CDC, binge drinking is a huge problem in the US. Adolescents and young adults, typically high school and college students, are most often associated with binge drinking problems, but middle-age and older adults are binge drinking more often as well.

About 90 percent of American adults reported binge drinking at least once in the past month.

The average binge is about eight drinks per occasion.

Binge drinking is most common among adults ages 18-34, although older adults ages 65 and older are binge drinking more often.

Men are twice as likely as women to binge drink, although women are binge drinking more frequently as well.

When adolescents drink alcohol, it is more likely to be via binge drinking than other forms of problem drinking.

Binge drinking increases the risk of alcohol poisoning, which can cause spontaneous death. If a person is suffering from alcohol poisoning, call for help immediately. They need emergency medical attention.

Other effects of binge drinking, which can be harmful to health, include:

Loss of coordination, leading to falls
Poor impulse control
Reduced decision-making skills
Illness from hangover the next day
Low body temperature
Seizures
Dehydration

What Is a Blackout?

A blackout is a general term for a loss of memory, and the most common cause is a rapid increase in blood alcohol levels. This is sometimes called alcohol-induced amnesia. Problems forming new memories and blackouts are consequences of a rapid increase in BAC, most often caused by binge drinking. However, the effect of alcohol on memory can vary among different people.

Usually, a person’s BAC must reach 0.14 percent – almost twice the legal limit – to induce a blackout. When sober, memories are formed after sensory input is processed in the short-term memory via a process called transfer encoding, then moved through a similar process into long-term memory. When a person remembers something, their brain retrieves the memory from long-term storage and puts it into short-term memory while the individual re-experiences the event. Scientists have known for a long time that alcohol interferes with transfer encoding and retrieval between short-term and long-term memory storage.

There are two forms of alcohol-caused blackouts: complete and partial or fragmentary.

En block (complete) involves total memory loss until the body’s BAC lowers and memory processing returns.

Partial (fragmentary) means that the person may not immediately remember what happened, but certain cues can trigger memories to return.

There is a huge difference between blacking out and passing out. When a person passes out, they lose consciousness and are in a state similar to being asleep, although they are not likely to respond to stimuli like being spoken to or touched. When a person blacks out, they may continue to make decisions, hold conversations, and even continue to drink. They appear to be conscious, but they will not remember what happened. This is extremely risky, as the person may attempt to drive, have sex, or perform other risky behaviours that can lead to permanent harm and even death.

During the blackout, the person will be able to remember events before their BAC reached very high levels, and drinking too much inconsistently will typically not damage these memories.

Who Is at the Most Risk from Alcohol Blackouts?

Women are at greater risk of blacking out than men, and young adults are at greater risk of blacking out compared to older adults.

Differences in hormones, body composition, and physical size mean that women cannot drink as much alcohol as men before becoming intoxicated. This is why the definition of binge drinking is different between genders. Because women become drunk on less alcohol, they are also at greater risk of blacking out because their BAC rises faster.

Typically, adolescents and young adults are more likely to binge drink, and when they do, they are more likely to drink more alcohol per binge. However, they also do not have as much experience drinking in moderation or drinking consistently, so they are more likely to overestimate how much they can consume or underestimate how much they have already consumed. This is very risky and puts young people at serious risk of experiencing legal, financial, academic, and personal consequences, such as illness, mood disorders, sexual assault, physical violence, and hospitalization.

Adolescents and young adults are still developing, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Consuming a lot of alcohol can damage the brain while it is forming, so young people who binge drink and experience blackouts are more likely to have memory problems for the rest of their lives.

Are Binge Drinking and Blacking Out Signs of Addiction?

While medical professionals agree that binge drinking is not the same as alcohol use disorder, drinking too much frequently increases the risk of developing alcohol dependence and compulsive behaviours around alcohol consumption. Blackouts were once considered one of the three main indicators of AUD, but blacking out is currently understood to be related to a rapid increase in BAC, not heavy drinking or AUD, which is characterized by a tolerance to and dependence on alcohol, making it harder for the body to respond to certain levels of alcohol.

If a person understands that blacking out is very dangerous, they may stop drinking, or they may be more careful to moderate their drinking. People who experience consistent blackouts from drinking too much may have AUD. They need medical treatment for this condition, including supervised detox and rehabilitation.

RESOURCE

https://www.alcohol.org/effects/dangers-of-blackouts/

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What is codependency?

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Home / Archive by category "Uncategorized" (Page 3)

What is codependency?

21 June, 2019Articles, News

Codependency is defined as: an excessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner, typically one who requires support on account of an illness or addiction. It affects an individual’s capacity to have healthy, mutually satisfying relationships.

Who is affected by codependency?

When growing up in a family where one or both parents are unreliable or unavailable due to mental illness or addiction, a child learns to put the parents’ needs first. In dysfunctional families, feelings are suppressed and problems are avoided. The child’s needs are put below those of the parent. Growing up under these conditions means that these behaviours are likely to be repeated in other relationships.

The enabling wife of the alcoholic husband is a classic example of codependency. Today this has been expanded to a parent, spouse, friend, work colleague, sibling or any person who has a relationship with someone with mental illness or a person who suffers from substance use disorder (SDU), .

What do we see in the codependent?

Codependent individuals believe they share in the responsibility of their partners negative behaviour. They often have low self-esteem and find value and purpose in ensuring the well-being of the unhealthy partner. The codependent compulsively plays the martyr role in the relationship.

He or she holds on to the sense of being needed. There is often denial around the actions of the afflicted partner and around their role in the relationship. This is followed by the need to rescue. There is an unhealthy, over-reliance on the relationship and a deep need to hold on to it to avoid feelings of failure or abandonment.

The hallmarks of a codependent relationship include: poor communication, a lack of boundaries, a deep need for approval and validation, persistent anger, dishonesty and a need to control.

What can we do about codependency?

There is hope for the codependent and that hope comes from understanding. By understanding the unhealthy behaviour and its consequences, they are able to make the necessary changes. Addiction extends into relationships and it is important that family members educate themselves and get an understanding of the addiction cycle.

It is vital to investigate childhood issues, the destructive behaviours in relationships past and present as well as to identify emotions and learn to both feel them and express them.

The goals for the codependent in recovery are to have mutually satisfying relationships, avoid the negative behaviour patterns of the past and to learn to identify their own wants and needs. Put boundaries in place and stick to them. Once the process of recovery begins, one will understand that there is no need to hold on to unhealthy/destructive relationships and your happiness is not based on what others think. You are not responsible for the happiness of others.

Sources:

https://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/co-dependency

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anxiety-zen/201609/6-signs-codependent-relationship

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