Are you a Binge Drinker?
What is a Binge Anyway?
Technically a binge drinking session is when you consume anything from 6-8 units or more.
In simple terms, it’s when we drink a large amount of alcohol in a short space of time.
6-8 Units could be: 3 x 175ml glasses of wine = 6.9 units.
Or 4 pints of lager = 8 units
This depends on the strength of the lager and wine. Also, the size of your wine glass.
It’s easier to think of a binge more in terms of drinking a lot in one go over a short period. So, you go out and you get drunk within a couple of hours. I think we all know whether we binge or not.
It’s the nights out that we can’t quite remember, when we spend the day after piecing together what happened. The weekend spent feeling terrible: ill, sick, headache, bad stomach, embarrassed and eating way too much comfort food to get through the hangover.
Maybe these feelings even tip into feeling depressed and anxious into Monday and Tuesday.
What Can You Do to Help Yourself?
Alcohol is a toxin, a poison. I know I say it all the time, but it’s true. It’s a legal very harmful substance. If you regularly go out and drink a lot, it’s going to catch up with you soon.
· The first thing to do is to download your self a good app. All you need is one that counts how much you are drinking, in units, amount, calories or money. It doesn’t need to do anything else. It’s just so you know how much you consume on a night out. If you are not a techy person write it down.
· Once you know how much you are drinking. Figure out which bit motivates you. Is it the amount you are drinking that bothers you? Is it the number of empty calories? How much you spent? How you feel the next day? What you did whilst you were drunk? You know which one it is. Use it, remember it. If it’s calories, keep counting your calories. If its money, keep making a note of how much you are spending and so on.
· This is a big one, don’t underestimate it: Delay your start time. Everyone goes out together, meets up and starts drinking at the same time. You are all nervous and excited. Everyone drinks thier first drinks quickly, then has another one. This keeps going and this is how people get drunk quickly. The first drink you have, make it a soft drink and drink it slowly. Ideally you want to do this for as long as you can, if you can. Now you might feel nervous when you do this, as you are not using alcohol as a social lubricant. Let’s face it, us British like something that helps us talk to people, connect. It’s ok. If you feel shy or nervous, it won’t kill you. Just wait and then you will see everyone else get drunk quickly and you will see what I mean.
· When you do have your first alcoholic drink, drink slowly.
· Drink soft drinks in between the alcoholic drinks and you will naturally drink less and not be so drunk.
Just try these things a few times and see how you get on. It’s different, its ok. You will feel different. But what I hope and I am sure you do as well, is that you don’t get so drunk, you are more in charge because you are drinking less, you can remember what you did the next day, you don’t replay those horrible embarrassed feelings and you don’t need to eat so much rubbish to get over the hangover. Hey maybe you are even not hungover at all. You don’t waste your weekend feeling rubbish. The list is endless.
I am passionate about making sure people have access to good information about their health. One of the best things you can do is learn about alcohol.
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