Movies about wild college partying makes it seem like binge drinking is a fun and harmless pastime. However, when you drink more than a couple drinks, you are putting yourself at risk for many potentially life-threatening health conditions. The human body sees alcohol as a toxic poison, so too much can cause regular bodily functions to break down. Drinking more than four drinks in a few hours is considered binge drinking, and this behavior can cause many problems.
Binge Drinking Increases Accident Risks
The CDC has found that binge drinking greatly raises a person’s risk of getting injured due to other accidents. This happens because binge drinking causes a person to rapidly become extremely drunk, and drunk people have greatly impaired judgement and an extreme lack of coordination. Binge drinkers risk broken bones, cuts, concussions, and choking due to their inability to avoid accidents. People who binge drink are at a significantly higher risk of choking on their own vomit while passed out, this type of accident mainly occurs within alcoholics and substance abusers.
Drunk Driving Typically Happens After Binge Drinking
Binge drinkers are particularly likely to drive while drunk because the underestimate the amount of time it takes to sober up. Even though a person may feel more sober now that they are no longer dizzy or vomiting, their reflexes may still be impaired enough that driving is unsafe. Almost ⅓ of all people over the age of 16 who are killed in an automobile crash are killed after drinking alcohol. Even if you do die or kill anyone else, minor car crashes are severe enough to cause bone, muscle, and joint damage that may bother you for the rest of your life. You also risk severe legal penalties any time you are driving with a blood alcohol content of more than .08%, even if no accidents occur.
Alcohol Poisoning Is Often Caused by Binge Drinking
Alcohol is a depressant that slows down a person’s heart and breathing rates. When a person drinks large amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time, they can get alcohol poisoning. This is particularly dangerous among inexperienced drinkers who start to binge drink without being aware of their stopping point. If a person has alcohol poisoning, they may die without immediate medical treatment. Therefore, it is important to call 911 or take a binge drinker to the hospital if they start having irregular or slow breathing, cannot be wakened after passing out, have low blood temperature, start to have seizures, excessively vomit, and have blue or pale skin.
Over Time Binge Drinkers Develop Liver Damage
The liver is a large organ in the abdomen that helps to filter toxins out of the bloodstream. Since alcohol is technically a poison, the liver struggles to process it and remove it from the body. Alcohol can damage individual cells of the liver, which normally regenerate over time. However, excessive and repeated binge drinking damages the liver so much that scar tissue develops and the liver cannot heal itself. This eventually may lead to liver failure and death if a person cannot get an organ transplant.
Even people who do not suffer one of the potentially life-threatening dangers of binge drinking face many other issues. Increased alcohol intake causes weight gain, raises diabetes risks, prevents sleep, impairs regular brain functioning, and can negatively harm your social and professional life. If you are struggling to stop binge drinking, you may be dealing with a substance abuse problem. Fortunately, it is possible to overcome addiction if you seek help from experienced addiction counselors. Please call Intervention drug rehab centers and treatment facilities today to enroll in a detox clinic near you.
