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Someone who often spends weekend evenings chasing beers with vodka or tequila shots won’t be surprised by the next morning’s hangover. What they might not realize, however, is that a hangover may be the least of their worries.
Even a single round of binge drinking can have serious effects on pretty much every part of the body, including the brain. And a long-term binge drinking habit may cause even more damaging health problems.
Binge drinking is a pattern of consuming large quantities of alcohol over a short period of time.1
It’s when someone drinks enough alcohol within a two-hour period to bring their blood alcohol concentration to 0.08% (the BAC that makes it illegal to drive) and does this at least once a month.
For men, this means about five alcoholic drinks within a two-hour period. And for women, it means four drinks within two hours. What counts as a drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of liquor.2
The exact number of drinks required to bring the BAC to 0.08 % will vary from person to person. And it’s generally less for youth: around three drinks for girls, and 3-5 drinks for boys, depending on their age and weight. 3
The subjective experience of intoxication—of “being drunk”—differs from one person to the next. One person may feel intoxicated after a single drink. Someone else might start to feel a buzz only after five or six drinks.
There are several possible reasons for these differences, including:
In a 2019 survey, around 24% of the people in the United States ages 12 and older—66 million people total—reported binge drinking during the past month.1
And around one in six adults in the U.S. binge drink four times a month.
Binge drinking can affect people of any age, race, gender, or socioeconomic group. That said, researchers have also learned that: 2,3
How does someone know if they—or a friend or family member—has a problem with binge drinking?
Binge drinking affects people in different ways. But as a rule of thumb, if alcohol use is creating trouble at work, at home, at school, or in social situations, then it’s a problem.
Excessive alcohol use—including binge drinking—can be influenced by a variety of factors. A person’s living environment, their genetics, psychological issues, and social situation can all contribute to alcohol abuse.
As mentioned above, binge drinking is very common among college students. And men are twice as likely as women to binge drink. People who are more educated and whose annual income is greater than $75,000 are also more likely to binge drink.
Binge drinking can be divided into different types, which correspond to the various causes and risk factors that contribute to it.
Binge drinking can be divided into different types, which correspond to the various causes and risk factors that contribute to it.
People may binge drink to fit in with their college companions, co-workers, or relatives. The need to be accepted motivates them into doing something they might not do on their own.
Sometimes, people who are feeling anxious, angry, or depressed consume large quantities of alcohol in a short time. This is a coping mechanism to try to relieve those uncomfortable feelings. Binge drinking is used as a substitute for the comfort and security they most deeply crave.
Binge drinking may be used as a strategy to overcome boredom. The intense experience of intoxication at least temporarily relieves the dullness, confusion, or monotony of their life.
Binge drinking may also be triggered by withdrawal symptoms in someone with an alcohol use disorder. When such a person hasn’t had a drink in a long time, craving intensifies. And the intense pleasure that is experienced with the next drink can escalate into a binge.
Academic stress, peer pressure, and the wide availability of alcohol on college campuses set the stage for wide-spread binge drinking among students. Those who join fraternities or sororities are even more likely to engage in binge drinking via drinking games and hazing incidents.
Academic stress, peer pressure, and the wide availability of alcohol on college campuses set the stage for wide-spread binge drinking among students. Those who join fraternities or sororities are even more likely to engage in binge drinking via drinking games and hazing incidents.
Binge drinking doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is an alcoholic—i.e., that they suffer from alcohol use disorder (AUD). In fact, most people who binge drink do not have a severe alcohol use disorder. 2
However, frequent binge drinking can increase a person’s risk of developing AUD at some point in their life.
So, the first long-term danger of binge-drinking is this possibility of developing an alcohol use disorder. The chances of this happening are particularly high for those who drink heavily during their teenage years.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is what doctors and psychiatrists use to diagnose mental disorders. Binge drinking is not recognized as a specific disorder in the DSM-5.
However, if the binge drinking becomes chronic, a person may then be diagnosed with alcohol use disorder—which is a disease category (with mild, moderate, and severe levels) listed in the DSM-5.5
Alcohol Use Disorder is associated with symptoms such as:
Almost every system in the human body can be negatively affected by binge drinking. Some of these damaging effects are short-term, and others are long-term.
Short-term effects of binge drinking may potentially include: 2, 4
The headache, fatigue, nausea, and other symptoms of a hangover may resolve within a few hours. But there are many longer-term health problems associated with binge drinking, for instance: 1
Binge drinking can negatively impact a wide variety of organs and systems in the human body. Here are some of the dysfunctions and diseases linked to the high alcohol intake of binge drinking:
Long-term heavy alcohol use can also affect entire physiological systems. For instance:
Binge drinking has negative effects on a person’s mental-emotional as well as their physical health. Many alcohol-related mental health problems are linked to how alcohol affects the brain.
Binge drinking can cause neurological damage. In other words, it causes visible physical changes to the brain.
The more alcohol that is consumed, the more the prefrontal cortex of the brain is thinned—which negatively impacts cognitive and emotional functioning.8
Binge drinking increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and psychosis.
It is associated with negative and depressive moods. People who do not engage in binge drinking are more likely to experience positive moods, than those who do engage in binge drinking.12
Binge drinking also affects the ability to form new long-term memories, and increases the risk of developing dementia.
Binge drinking negatively impacts a person’s ability to:11
The dangers of binge drinking go beyond the risk of physical disease in a person’s body, or mental-emotional damage to their mind. Binge drinking also increases the chance of accidental injury; and of becoming a victim or perpetrator of interpersonal violence.
Binge drinking increases the chance of a person injuring themselves, either inside or outside the home. As mentioned above, alcohol is a factor in 40% of fatal falls, highway crashes, and suicides.
Excessive alcohol consumption is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. It is responsible for one out of every ten deaths among working-age adults. 16
Along with the money spent on alcohol purchases, binge drinking can be financially draining due to:
The negative impacts of binge drinking are not limited to individual people. It also has social and economic costs.
In a single year (2010) excessive alcohol use cost the United States around $249 billion. And $191 billion was linked directly to binge drinking. Included in these totals were losses related to healthcare costs, property damage, criminal justice costs, and reduced productivity in the workplace. 15
Are there ways to reduce the risk of binge drinking? Yes! Here are some excellent strategies for increasing the safety of alcohol consumption.
To lower the risk of binge drinking, a person can:
If a person is concerned about their binge drinking or how their alcohol intake is negatively impacting their life, they should speak with their doctor or therapist, who can recommend treatment options such as psychotherapy, medications, lifestyle counseling, and other interventions.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/binge-drinking
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm
University of Rochester Medical Center. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=1&contentid=1924
Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/binge-drinking-definition
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition). Substance-related disorders: Alcohol-related disorders (pp. 490 – 497). American Psychiatric Association Publishing, Washington; DC
Hibell, B., Andersson, B., Ahlström, S., Balakireva, O., Bjarnason, T., Kokkevi, A., et al. (2004). The ESPAD Report 2003: Alcohol and other drug use among students in 35 European countries. Stockholm: The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN).
Effects of Alcohol on the Microbiome. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590619/
Effect of Alcohol Use on Cognitive and Emotional Processing via Neuro-Imaging. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6711400/
Room R, Babor T, Rehm J. “Alcohol and public health.” The Lancet. 2005;365(9458):519-530. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)17870-2 https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673605178702
PLoS One: “Binge drinking during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with deficits in verbal episodic memory.”
Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01111/full
Depressive Symptoms & Drinking Patterns https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/01612840.2011.653036
Alcohol-Related Injuries Among Emergency-Department Patients. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2005.01257.x
Addiction & College Students https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40429-016-0125-8
Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-drinking.html
Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0293.htm
If you or a loved need to safely detox from drugs or alcohol, contact Southern California Sunrise Recovery Center Today.