Alcohol Abuse Essentials

Millions of people throughout the world engage in irresponsible and excessive drinking and exhibit drinking problems. Such drinking behavior is known as alcohol abuse. A lot of people apparently do not realize that binge drinking, which is a special form of alcohol abuse, can cause the person's body to shut down and stop functioning.

In short, binge drinking, in some instances, can result is the loss of an individual's life.
What Is Alcohol Abuse?

Though most people in the industrialized countries has heard about alcohol abuse, more than a few individuals have asked the following question: exactly what is alcohol abuse?

Alcohol abuse is a drinking pattern that frequently results in one or more of the following during a twelve-month time frame:

* The experience of recurring alcohol-related legal difficulties (such as multiple DUIs)

* Ongoing alcohol-related relationship issues

* The failure to attend to important responsibilities at school, work, or home

* Alcohol-related physical injury

If you abuse alcohol you are a "problem drinker" and you may be gambling with your life. How is this possible, you ask? Not unlike what happens when people abuse other drugs, many individuals who engage in binge drinking, who drink irresponsibly, or who on a regular basis abuse alcohol sooner or later may become alcohol dependent.

To be more specific, the more a person continues to binge drink and abuse alcohol the more likely he or she will eventually become an alcoholic. In short, when a problem drinker starts to crave alcohol, builds up a tolerance for alcohol, loses total control regarding drinking, and experiences alcohol withdrawal symptoms, he or she has made the regrettable transition from alcohol abuse to alcohol dependency.
What Is Binge Drinking?

The term "binge drinking" has become so commonly used that is worth asking the following question: what is binge drinking? Binge drinking is defined as having four or more drinks at one sitting for women or five or more drinks at one sitting for men. Why is binge drinking dangerous and extremely unhealthy and why does it lead to severe drinking problems?

Not only does binge drinking significantly increase the risk of serious injury or possibility of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but it can also result in alcohol poisoning (also known as alcohol overdose), an outcome that can be deadly.

Unfortunately, once alcohol abuse starts, the behavior, in many instances, continues and can lead to the chronic, long-term negative consequences that are characteristic of excessive drinking. Also unfortunate are the number of documented cases of alcohol abuse among free-teens and teenagers and the alcohol abuse that takes place on college campuses.

The bottom line is this: binge drinking IS a form of alcohol abuse that can be fatal, even if the binging takes place "only" a few times per year. So, the next time someone asks you "what is binge drinking," you can say that it is a form of alcohol abuse that is characterized by a male having five or more drinks at one occasion or four drinks at one sitting for women---and point out that binge drinking can result in alcohol poisoning which can result in the loss of one's life.