Binge drinking - have you ever done it?

[Ghost Rider]

Yes some people drink moderately but that does not mean that alcohol is not a toxic substance which is bad for the human body.I can understand stupid people that drink(they do it because they don't know any better)but why would you drink if you know the effects on your organism and your mind?
Its a stupid thing to do and you cant deny that.But then again humans are notorious for doing stupid things.

You are aware, yes, that some alcoholic drinks can actually benefit your health in moderation? Red Wine, for example.

Obviously, somebody who sits down an chugs a whole bottle of Tesco's own brand red from a plastic, screw top bottle, and follows it up with half a bottle of Sambuka isn't doing himself any favours. But somebody who has a glass or two of red wine with his Sunday roast, and that's it for the whole week, is likely to see benefits to his health, particularly cardiovascular health.

Hey i am not attacking the people who have a few drinks a week,that can be good for the health especially in the case of red wine.
I am just saying that drinking alcohol just for the fun of drinking alcohol is stupid.

Drinking alcohol is for total idiots,i will never understand a person willing to poison them selves.

Care to backpedal some more dumbfuck?

[DarthShady]

Nice picture.I take it you think alcohol=you are cool=you get pussy.
Are you really that stupid?

Kid, I've been in a relationship for the last years, but from my extensive tests from the days before, let me tell you this breaking news, some alcohol does relax the mood and yes, brings pussy.

I couldn't agree more.But i think you can credit your success, more to your experiences with women than your experiences with alcohol.

[Stark]

Social lubrication doesn't require pickling your brain, y'know?

[Ghost Rider]

Nice picture.I take it you think alcohol=you are cool=you get pussy.
Are you really that stupid?

Kid, I've been in a relationship for the last years, but from my extensive tests from the days before, let me tell you this breaking news, some alcohol does relax the mood and yes, brings pussy.

I couldn't agree more.But i think you can credit your success, more to your experiences with women than your experiences with alcohol.

Wow, I love out of context statements.

Nice picture.I take it you think alcohol=you are cool=you get pussy.
Are you really that stupid?

Is your in relation to that picture.

Now, you are saying his level of experience with women not alcohol, when he makes the claim of some alcohol does relax the mood and yes, brings pussy

So are you going to now backpedal or just shut your mouth because you made a genearlizaed statement based on your personal experiences?

[Colonel Olrik]

Nice picture.I take it you think alcohol=you are cool=you get pussy.
Are you really that stupid?

Kid, I've been in a relationship for the last years, but from my extensive tests from the days before, let me tell you this breaking news, some alcohol does relax the mood and yes, brings pussy.

I couldn't agree more.But i think you can credit your success, more to your experiences with women than your experiences with alcohol.

So, if you agree fully with me, and if I say that from my experience with women I know that alcohol should be experienced to achieve said women, will your head implode

[DarthShady]

So are you going to now backpedal or just shut your mouth because you made a genearlizaed statement based on your personal experiences?

I am going to shut up now.Thanks for bringing me back to reality from a long trip into the past.

[Superman]

Yes i am mentally fucked up,because my father was an alcoholic.

Sorry you had to go through that, but most people aren't going to care. They're just going listen to you say these things and assume you're crazy.

[Justforfun000]

I am going to shut up now.Thanks for bringing me back to reality from a long trip into the past.

Kudos to you buddy. You recognized your overexaggeration quicker then most and apologized. Actually that's quite impressive compared to most new people here. That actually garners you a bit more respect then the average.

[Turin]

So are you going to now backpedal or just shut your mouth because you made a genearlizaed statement based on your personal experiences?

I am going to shut up now.Thanks for bringing me back to reality from a long trip into the past.

Dammit people... give a sorta-newb like me a chance to jump back in!

In an effort to add some science to this thread, there's an article I was looking at (in anticipation of defending some of my earlier statements about moderate use) that I thought some might find interesting: International Comparisons of Alcohol Use

* In wet cultures, alcohol is integrated into daily life and activities (e.g., is consumed with meals) and is widely available and accessible. In these cultures, abstinence rates are low, and wine is largely the beverage of preference. European countries bordering the Mediterranean have traditionally exemplified wet cultures.

* In dry cultures, alcohol consumption is not as common during everyday activities (e.g., it is less frequently a part of meals) and access to alcohol is more restricted. Abstinence is more common, but when drinking occurs it is more likely to result in intoxication; moreover, wine consumption is less common. Examples of traditionally dry cultures include the Scandinavian countries, the United States, and Canada.

The two interesting items I found in this article was how the wet/dry division is blurring in recent years (indeed, this is the focus of the first part of the article), and the difficulty in defining "alcohol abuse" for purposes of research. Binge drinking, as we've been discussing here, seems to be a "newer" indicator being used in research.

What I'd be interested in seeing as a piece of research, although I'm having trouble finding good data, is the correlation between "wet" attitudes towards drinking and the rates of two particularly problematic areas: 1) rate of alcoholism, and 2) rate of drunk driving. I suspect that countries that teach young adults to "respect" alcohol rather than restricting it have better rates on both fronts. I'll keep looking and see what I can dig up.

[Turin]

Fuck, I knew as soon as I hit submit I'd find an article on what I was looking for! A meta-study type article, but useful I think.

The antidote to alcohol abuse: sensible drinking messages

Cultures that accept responsible social drinking as a normal part of life have less alcohol abuse than cultures that fear and condemn alcohol. Moreover, moderate-drinking cultures benefit more from the well-documented cardioprotective effects of alcohol. Positive socialization of children begins with parental models of responsible drinking, but such modeling is often undermined by prohibitionist messages in school. Indeed, alcohol phobia in the US is so extreme that physicians are afraid to advise patients about safe levels of drinking.

[Alyrium Denryle]

I think a lot of situations can actually call for binge drinking. Yes, I will elaborate further.

I do not drink very often. But when I do it is usually with some sort of purpose. Some people, myself included, have a lot of emotional issues that need to be unloaded sometimes. For a variety of reasons it can be very hard to do this, the sorts of little frustrations that pile up and pile up, or larger but chronic problems that you just cant talk about normally (long standing personal issues which are hard to bring up without chemical intervention for example)

taken just as a one-instance thing, there are definitely cases where the short term harm of fucking up your liver and other systems can be overridden by the long term gains of getting issues off your chest amd later opening up a dialogue when sober.

Just personal experience there... heh... under certain circumstances an alcohol induced emotional breakdown can be exactly the right medicine.

[Metatwaddle]

Okay, I've been less than responsible with alcohol a few times, and I regret it less than I probably should, but I think that's going a little far.

I don't think alcohol is the way to deal with emotional issues because it's as likely to create them as it is to make them go away. You may be able to get things off your chest more easily with alcohol than without it, but there are a couple of problems. One, there's such a thing as too drunk to deal with these things. After a while you can't even talk coherently, let alone think clearly, and thinking clearly is important if you want to actually solve your problems instead of just talking about them (which helps, but isn't itself sufficient to make emotional problems go away). I'd imagine that a good level would be about two drinks - maybe three for people with higher tolerance than me, which is some females and practically all males.

Number two, if you can get things off your chest more easily when drunk, you're obviously willing to tell people things about yourself you wouldn't say if you were sober. The next day, you may regret telling one of your co-workers about your deep-seated fear of whatever, especially if rumor travels fast in your office. And things might actually be uncomfortable the next day between you and the person you talked to.

Number three, if you're very drunk, you may do things that will lead to problems later on - like doing stupid things or saying hurtful words or getting into fights that will estrange you from the people who saw you when you were drunk. (As Spin Echo alluded, the risks are even worse for women: there's often some asshole ready to take advantage of a woman when she's drunk and can't defend herself as well. If that wouldn't cause emotional problems, I don't know what would. But that doesn't apply to you.)

[Illuminatus Primus]

Depends on how you define binge drinking, because the common standard of ‘more then six alcoholic beverages at one event’ is frankly nonsense. I can drink six beers and hardly feel a thing, and actually these days I simply cannot get drunk off beer at all unless it’s better then 6% alcohol. I’ll feel too full first.

Because you're more knowledgeable than the CDC and physicians in general to determine the proper continuum of risk relative to volume consumed from your "gut feeling" and say-so? Somehow it stops being abusive because you're too tolerant to get drunk without severely binge drinking? Why do you think the CDC even posts a precise definition? Maybe because its a medically defined term with physical consequences?

[Ma Deuce]

Can't say that I've ever been inebriated at all, despite the enormous peer pressure to do so in high school and my brief stint in college just before my dad died. I have been a bit buzzed a couple times though, after drinking relatively little at a time (about 2 beers or so). Since I don't seem to have a very high tolerance to alcohol, I try to keep my consumption to a minimum, even though I don't abstain completely.

[Stuart Mackey]

Have you ever gone binge drinking? If so, did you do it just once, or have you done it many times? If the latter, how would you respond to the charge that you're a fucking idiot?

I'm just curious; the subject of alcoholism always comes up and everyone always takes pains to say that they're defending "responsible drinking" but not "binge drinking". Leaving aside my reservations with those arguments, I am curious how many people have gone binge drinking, and whether there are any arguments they can come up with in defense of this behaviour.

1.) Yes
2.)Twice
3.) Guilty as charged.

Still, I was a happy drunk.

[Enforcer Talen]

Have you ever gone binge drinking? If so, did you do it just once, or have you done it many times? If the latter, how would you respond to the charge that you're a fucking idiot?

I'm just curious; the subject of alcoholism always comes up and everyone always takes pains to say that they're defending "responsible drinking" but not "binge drinking". Leaving aside my reservations with those arguments, I am curious how many people have gone binge drinking, and whether there are any arguments they can come up with in defense of this behaviour.

After Iraq, I did a bottle of jaeger a night most nights for about 6 months. Ive mostly come out of it.

[Master Arachnos]

Nice picture.I take it you think alcohol=you are cool=you get pussy.
Are you really that stupid?

Kid, I've been in a relationship for the last years, but from my extensive tests from the days before, let me tell you this breaking news, some alcohol shared by two does relax the mood and yes, brings pussy.

I'm hoping thats still true. I have plans for Friday involving a hot girl and a case of Magners

[Spyder]

I can think of a number of incidences a few years back, over time you sort of grow out of it. I would respond that I was a very happy fucking idiot at the time and a very sorry fucking idiot the next day.

However, one cannot describe the sheer ecstasy that is spicy and greasy food during a hangover. Pure fat enriched happiness.

[Thunderfire]

After Iraq, I did a bottle of jaeger a night most nights for about 6 months. Ive mostly come out of it.

Jaeger = Jaegermeister. That's alot of alcohol unless you drink one of the small bottles.

[Kuja]

Have you ever gone binge drinking? If so, did you do it just once, or have you done it many times? If the latter, how would you respond to the charge that you're a fucking idiot?

I think I managed to fulfill the general (legal) definition of binge drinking twice, both times when I wasn't paying enough attention to how much I was downing. On the first occasion, I actually managed to down an entire bottle of Goldschlager, once glass at a time, over the course of an hour and a half. It wasn't until I reached over to pick it up for another glass that I realized it was empty. Naturally, I paid for it over the next week - my stomach felt like it was on fire for awhile. One the second occasion, about a year later, it was simple Labatt's Blue and I wasn't keeping track of the cans. I paid for that one too, and those were some good chicken wings.

Both of those happened some years back and I have been much more careful with my alcohol since.

[DarthShady]

I am going to shut up now.Thanks for bringing me back to reality from a long trip into the past.

Kudos to you buddy. You recognized your overexaggeration quicker then most and apologized. Actually that's quite impressive compared to most new people here. That actually garners you a bit more respect then the average.

Yeah,i realized i was being a jerk projecting my bad experiences to you guys.Sorry.

[Enforcer Talen]

After Iraq, I did a bottle of jaeger a night most nights for about 6 months. Ive mostly come out of it.

Jaeger = Jaegermeister. That's alot of alcohol unless you drink one of the small bottles.

The 750ml ones.

[Darth Servo]

Nope and never will. I think drinking itself is plenty stupid but drinking large quantities in a short amount of time is creationist level stupid.

I have enough health problems without delibrately poisoning myself.

[K. A. Pital]

Have not binged, even though I use high-grade spiritus alcohols like vodka and absinthe, generally pure.

It has been determined IIRC that beer is the most damaging alcohol drink despite the low spiritus grade.

I'm fairly resistant to alcohol as a Russian should be, but I never get too drunk. No point damaging my health. My life's fun without pointless self-inflicted damage.

[Alferd Packer]

Depends. If you consider binge drinking to be more than four drinks in a sitting, then I've binge drank many, many, many times. There have been many evenings with friends where, over the course of socializing for 8+ hours, I've consumed between five and eight drinks and been neither drunk nor hung over the next day.

If you consider binge drinking to be knowingly and willingly drinking beyond one's limits, then I'd have to say that I've done that at least a few times, with a caveat. I have drunk too much alcohol for my tolerance in the past, but the tipping point occurred without my foreknowledge. In other words, I've never said, "OK. I'm going to go to this party on a empty stomach, and drink as much alcohol as I possibly can, as fast as I possibly can, so I can be royally fucked up." I think that is an important distinction to make, as I've known people who've said, "I'm going to drink until I fucking throw up tonight, WOOO AWESOME DUDE!" To me, this encapsulates the mentality of a binge drinker.

Those instances where I have binge drank, it's simply occurred because I misjudged my capacity for tolerating alcohol or made a mistake in tracking how many beverages I consumed, or over what period of time I consumed them. But those days are largely behind me. I think there's a certain period wherein you test your boundaries with alcohol, and most people decide that routinely exceeding your limits isn't fun. Nowadays I drink much more like a European, in that I have a beer with dinner. I associate booze with meals primarily, and social events secondarily. This differs, I think, from some of my friends, who see alcohol as a social device first and foremost. Perhaps ironically, the biggest binge drinkers I've known don't drink with meals--alcohol is purely a vehicle for "gettin' fucked up."