Binge Drinking
Binge drinking is a problem throughout the year but when it comes to special occasions such as Christmas and New Year’s, alcohol consumption can go out the roof. Special events like these as well as other celebrations or birthdays throughout the year, are often an extra excuse and precursor to overindulgence.
Social Activities
Parties and gatherings are the usual excuses to drink, and for many, just another night of getting drunk. The current culture of wine with dinner, bars and clubs can allow for a lot of drinking, just as a ‘norm’.
For some, family gatherings and parties are stressful. A family that doesn’t get along, or an introverted personality make these times of anxiety, rather than fun and often the ‘solution’ is to numb themselves and drink.
Depression
For those who don’t have friends and family around, loneliness itself gives a ‘reason’ to drink and drown the sorrows.
The holiday blues and seasonal depression can be an additional factor, triggering people to feel lonely, with any celebration it can be a time of nostalgia and these feelings can cause emotional uneasiness. Drinking is used in the hope of taking the edge off.
The commercialization of society, with adverts for expensive products everywhere, can be depressing, a lack of money and a desire created that just don’t go together. The irony of drinking to drown this sorrow is that it is just more money down the drain.
Serious Consequences
The effects of binge drinking are numerous. Excessive alcohol consumption can cause accidents and injuries, especially behind the wheel of a car, as well as being bad for your health, possibly damaging the liver, heart and brain.
Alcohol is actually a depressant, not a stimulant, so it can fuel depression rather than help ease it. Everyone probably knows a ‘sad drunk’, but that is just one symptom of it. The depression of the nervous system is visible in slurred speech, unsteady walking and slowness of thought.
Binge drinking can certainly lead to alcoholism. This is perhaps the biggest risk involved when people drink excessively. Drinking more and more over time, allows the body to build up a tolerance, that means to achieve the effect of feeling tipsy or drunk will require higher and higher quantities of alcohol in the system. This though sometimes boasted about, is not a good thing; adding to health-related problems and the likelihood of becoming an addict.
Alcohol kills thousands annually between alcohol-related health problems, alcohol-caused accidents and overdose.
There is a host of withdrawal symptoms too. These include shaking, delirium tremens, heart irregularities, sweating, strokes and seizures. Coming off of alcohol can be life threatening depending on the severity of the addiction.
Getting Help
If you or a loved one are binge drinking regularly or are suffering from alcoholism, now is the time to get help, before the health risks develop and there is more chance of an overdose. Don’t think just because alcohol is a legal drug it is not so bad; alcohol can ruin lives. Don’t let it ruin yours or your loved ones.
