Approximately 56% of those were related to acute conditions or drinking to excess during a short period of time; top causes included crashes, suicide, homicide, poisoning and falls. Alcohol can take a serious toll on your body, and binge drinking carries a lot of risks. Binge drinkers and people who drink excessively have a larger chance of developing several physical and mental health issues. Many people who binge drink do so to cope with negative feelings, such as anxiety and stress or manage pain. Studies show that women reported 41% more heavy drinking days during 2020’s challenging pandemic days as compared to in 2019.

If you drink alone, find a hobby you can do yourself, like knitting or painting. Doing things you enjoy will help you stay sober and feel good about yourself, even without alcohol. For women reading this article, studies have shown that women who drink THREE alcoholic beverages in a week have a 15% higher risk of developing breast cancer. Naltrexone is a prescription medication that essentially prevents alcohol from feeling as good as it normally would. In more scientific terms, it blocks the endorphin receptors that alcohol would otherwise bind to.3 Over time, this makes binge drinking a less pleasurable experience, reducing your desire to do it.

Why You Should Stop Binge Drinking

If your excessive alcohol use is a reoccurring issue, you might admonish yourself for your poor self-control or even develop a sense of self-loathing. The human body can only process a certain amount of alcohol per hour. When an excess amount of alcohol is consumed, it results in the non-metabolized alcohol accumulating in the blood. If you want to cut back on your drinking — or quit drinking alcohol altogether — you have plenty of options. Excess drinking can affect your physical and mental health in many different ways. As you might have noticed, none of these criteria specify an amount of alcohol.

Frequently engaging in heavy drinking significantly increases one’s risk for long-term challenges related to excessive or problem drinking. While excessive drinking is the term used to describe different types of “drinking too much,” there are more definitive differences between binge drinking and heavy drinking. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly 5% of youth under age 17 and 10% of adults over age 65 engaged in binge drinking in the past month. One in six US adults binge drink and at least 25% do so weekly. 25% of US adults who binge drink consume at least 8 drinks during a binge drinking episode. One of the most common alcohol-related problems that affect people of all ages is binge drinking.

How to Stop Weekend Binge Drinking

But if you are truly committed to drinking less and not quitting, you’ll have to set limits for yourself and stick to them. There are resources online that will tell you to moderate your drinking. Without this potassium channel, alcohol can’t stimulate neurons and thus can’t release the much-beloved dopamine rush to our brains. The specific area in the brain that alcohol affects is called the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

The number of folks who binge drink keeps on climbing every year, despite analysis reports and data regarding the risks of substantial drinking. Fortunately, the trend towards binge drinking is beginning to reverse itself. This can be hard, especially if your closest friends are also your biggest drinking buddies. It doesn’t mean you can’t hang out but maybe change the scene. Do something during the day and avoid hitting the bars or clubs with them. Identifying and avoiding triggers is a big part of sobriety, but they’re also important for people cutting back on their alcohol consumption.

Better managing your alcohol intake

Also, according to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, 20% of the people with social anxiety disorder also suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence. Therefore, after a night of binge drinking, most of them will resolve on their own. However, recurring episodes of binge drinking are likely to lead to https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/binge-drinking-how-to-stop-binge-drinking/ long-term health problems, including long-term liver damage and disease. Additionally, research shows that long-term problematic drinking increases one’s risk for several cancers5, including those of the mouth, colon, and liver. Binge drinking means to drink a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time.

Although drinking any amount of alcohol carries certain risks, crossing the binge threshold increases the risk of acute harm, such as blackouts and overdoses. Additionally, binge drinking increases the likelihood of unsafe sexual behavior and the risks of sexually transmitted infections and unintentional pregnancy. Because of the impairments it produces, binge drinking can have potentially deadly consequences, like falls, burns, drownings, and car crashes.

Change Your Environment

Some binge drinkers only drink once a week; others even less frequently. In fact, abstaining from alcohol between sessions of excessive alcohol consumption is a key characteristic of binge drinking. You may think that because you’re not physically dependent on alcohol and don’t have to drink every day that your drinking isn’t harmful. However, binge drinking can have serious consequences and any unhealthy patterns of alcohol use can lead to more serious problems. The consequences of binge drinking are far-reaching and can impact our physical health, mental well-being, and social relationships.

You might try cutting back on your drinking but find that you suffer headaches, fatigue, anxiety, or irritability on the days when you don’t drink. Only about 10 percent of people who binge drink struggle with a dependence on alcohol. However, the more frequently you binge drink, the more at risk you are of developing an alcohol abuse problem. Studies show that binge drinking can affect your working memory, which is your ability to store short-term information and keep track of what you’re doing. Pregnant women who binge drink can affect their child’s physical and cognitive development.

Keeping a record of your drinking can help you be more aware of your patterns and triggers. For a week or two, note every time you have a drink, what kind of drink it was, where you were, who you were with, and how you felt. Reviewing your journal can help you see patterns in your drinking and find new ways to cut down. It can also help you achieve drinking moderation goals and track your progress over time. Reserve your place on today’s free quit drinking webinar, and I will show you how I have helped over 200,000 people like you.

You might binge drink in order to feel confident talking, flirting, or making jokes with strangers. This occurs when the level of alcohol in your bloodstream is so high that it creates a life-threatening situation. Drinking too much in a short period of time can reduce your heart rate, breathing, and body temperature.

Drink some water in between alcoholic drinks; this will help you to drink more slowly and stay hydrated. Binge drinking alarmingly increases the risk of cancer and liver cirrhosis. The most effective way of reducing alcohol abuse and binge drinking is to take responsibility for the amount that is consumed. All too often a drinker will minimise the problem by assuming that everyone else is drinking similar quantities. Binge drinking also increases the likelihood of unsafe sexual behavior and the risk of sexually transmitted infections and unintentional pregnancy. These risks are greater at higher peak levels of consumption.