Category Archives: Binge Drinking

Consequences of a DUI

Posted on by
1

Consequences of a DUI

Consequences of a DUI

Driving under the influence (DUI), or driving while intoxicated (DWI), is a serious criminal offense. A DUI can cost you money, your driving privileges, even your freedom. But there are other consequences of a DUI as well. Besides the legal repercussions, a DUI can have emotional, social, and even relationship consequences.

Consequences of a DUI: Legal

The penalties and requirements for drunken driving vary somewhat from state to state. However, due to the effort of advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, all 50 states have passes laws intended to crack down on drunk driving by increasing penalties and consequences of a DUI.

You are still innocent until proven guilty in this country, but if you took a breath or blood test that recorded your blood alcohol content at 0.08 or above, you will be convicted of drunk driving. It does not matter if you did not appear intoxicated, if you have a BAC of above 0.08, you can be convicted under the “per se” laws in all 50 states.

Once you are convicted of drunk driving in court, you will be ordered to pay a fine, court costs, and will have your driver’s license revoked for a period of time. In some states, you will face jail time. From state to state, the amount of fine and the length of license revocation and the jail time will vary. However, in every state, the consequences of a DUI include a fine and license revocation.

Consequences of a DUI: Social

The consequences of a DUI also include social consequences. Your revoked license can cause you to have difficulties getting to work or school or to social events. Your peers may judge or ostracize you for getting a DUI. You may not get a job, be passed up for career advances, or be denied admission to the school you want to attend.  A DUI will increase your insurance rates and it may increase your mortgage or other loan rates.

Consequences of a DUI: Emotional

Some of the consequences of a DUI are emotional consequences. You may feel sad, angry, or ashamed. Those that get into traffic accidents while under the influence are prone to developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder often includes experiencing flashbacks and unpleasant memories of the crash scene. PTSD can interfere with a person’s thoughts and awareness.

Another of the emotional consequences of a DUI involves being branded a criminal. In the time it takes for someone to be pulled over and arrested, they have gone from viewing themselves as an upstanding member of society to a common criminal. When you get handcuffed, put in the back of a cop car, taken to the police station, have fingerprints and mug shots taken, and put in a cell, it can be devastating emotionally.

Consequences of a DUI: Relationship

You can also experience relationship consequences of a DUI. Most people who are convicted of a DUI don’t even realize that their actions can negatively affect their relationships with other people. Loved ones may feel betrayed, disappointed, worried, or sad.

http://www.myduiattorney.org/dui-tips/emotional-impact-of-dui.html

http://www.wedodui.com/FAQ/Consequences-of-a-DUI.aspx

http://www.duifoundation.org/support/emotional/

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

How many drinks are too many?

Posted on by
Reply

How many drinks are too many?

How many drinks are too many?

“I usually have about three glasses of wine every night,” Laurie tells me. “I never really think about it. It’s an automatic thing when I get home, and I don’t get drunk.”

“My husband has three or four beers when he gets home on weekdays, and he drinks more when he doesn’t have to work the next day.” Michelle says. “Is that too much?”

Sometimes it can be hard to judge your own alcohol consumption, or even to judge the alcohol consumption of a loved one. It may be difficult to know how many drinks are too many.

How many drinks are too many? Factors

There are a lot of factors that determine how many drinks is too many including body weight, body fat, hydration, initial blood sugar, stomach content etc. Typically a “serving” of alcohol is 8 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1 ounce (one shot) of liquor. Once alcohol is absorbed, it enters the blood stream and is distributed in the body’s tissues. Alcohol is broken down by the body at the rate of 0.5 OZ per hour in the average person. This translates into about 1 drink per hour.

Alcohol use affects a person’s behavior and functioning. When a person begins to consume more alcohol than their body can eliminate (i.e. more than one drink per hour) their Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) begins to rise. Most people are fairly functional at .08 BAC however some will have noticeable impairment. Generally a night of “Heavy drinking”, or to the point where a person blacks out, generally is from a BAC around .18-.22. Most people will become unconscious at .22-.25 BAC. A BAC over .25 can cause long term loss of brain function, induce heart attacks, and so on.

How many drinks are too many? Individual Concerns

However, that is just the science of drinking. What also determines how many drinks are too many depends on what you are most afraid of. If it is alcoholism, than limiting yourself to one drink per night will keep most women out of the danger zone. If you are pregnant, than total abstinence is the way to go.

This is not to say that if you have, say, two drinks a night, you are alcoholic or slightly alcoholic. For some people, two drinks a night isn’t a big deal, for others, the same amount can compel them to overindulge.

The key to recognizing a problem with drinking is deciding whether it has a detrimental effect on your life. That is the important part in determining how many drinks is too many. If you find yourself habitually making inappropriate comments, acting out sexually, driving dangerously, blacking out, or waking up with a hangover, these are signs of a problem, no matter how infrequently you drink.

Alcoholism is usually diagnosed by control, compulsion, and consequences. If you find yourself drinking more than you intend do, are preoccupied with drinking, or suffer negative consequences from drinking, then you probably have a problem that requires professional help.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Drinking to Cope

Posted on by
Reply

Drinking to Cope

Drinking to Cope

Many studies into drinking alcohol have indicated that multiple that do drink alcoholic beverages, do so as a means to cope with life and its stress. There are so many stresses in life too, for which drinking can be a simple solution. For instance, you can drink to cope with economic stress, job stress, marital problems, and family problems etc. Drinking to cope could mean drinking due to anxiety, fear, sadness, and anger too. Today’s society is so fast paced and there is little support and this could be why some people find themselves drinking to cope.

Do you drink to cope?

When it comes to drinking in order to cope it is not so much the alcohol that is the problem but poor coping skills within the individual. Even though this is quite apparent, a lot of people try to cope with stress by using alcohol and this is actually counterintuitive. Drinking to cope doesn’t actually deal with the problem it just masks the stress. Then people end up having to drink more and more alcohol to gain the same amount of relief from drinking. This is how drinking to cope can easily lead to alcohol abuse and then to alcoholism. Drinking to cope can lead to physical, psychological, health, and social problems. In fact drinking to cope can actually reduce an individual’s ability to cope with stress.

Drinking to cope doesn’t solve anything all it does is create more problems for the individual trying to deal with whatever is going on. Drinking to cope is the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire in order to put it out. This may sound extreme but it is true. Drinking to cope will only make things worse especially for the individual who is drinking to excess. An individual who hasn’t reached the point of alcohol abuse doesn’t have to totally abstain from alcohol, but they should cut back from drinking alcohol or try not drinking to cope because it is absolutely vital to their wellbeing to not drink too much. Drinking too much in order to cope with problems is when many people  fall into the grips of alcoholism and once a person has reached that point, there is no coming back. Alcoholism is a lifelong issue and can be really hard to overcome for the person who has drank to the point of changing their brain chemistry.

There are multiple alternative to handling stress other than drinking to cope. For instance many people use yoga to distress. There are also tons of other holistic coping skills and therapies to help with building healthy coping skills. Drinking to cope isn’t the only option.

Here are some healthier alternative other than drinking to cope:

  • Individual therapy
  • Yoga
  • Massage therapy
  • Exercise
  • Meditation
  • Acupuncture
  • Breathing exercises
  • Long walks
  • Cleaning
  • Talking to someone

No one has to drink to cope. Drinking to cope is a choice that can be changed. The consequences of drinking to cope can be very grave and those consequences don’t have to be felt if other coping strategies can be implemented. Healthy coping skills are a tool that an individual can keep with them forever too in order to instill a permanent sense of wellbeing within them. This is much better in comparison to drinking to cope and just compounding the problems.

Sources:

http://stresscourse.tripod.com/id86.html

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/stress-and-drinking/

 

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Binge Drinking

Posted on by
Reply

Binge drinking is a scary way to drink. Binge drinking is very dangerous to a person’s health and can cause serious damage quickly to a person’s body.

What is binge drinking?

Binge drinking is the modern epithet for drinking alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time.

Two large glasses of wine may not seem like very much. But drinking six units of alcohol in a short space of time – an hour, say – will raise your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and could make you drunk very quickly. Drinking the same amount over several hours and accompanied by food for example will not have the same effect on your BAC.

Some studies show that drinking a large amount of alcohol over a short period of time may be significantly worse for your health than frequently drinking small quantities.

Getting very drunk can affect your physical and mental health:

  • Accidents and falls are common because being drunk affects your balance and co-ordination. You’re also more likely to suffer head, hand and facial injuries. Binge drinking has also been linked to self-harm .
  • In extreme cases, you could die. Overdosing on alcohol can stop you breathing or stop your heart, or you could choke on your vomit.
  • Nearly a third (29%) of alcohol related deaths are a result of alcohol related accidents. These deaths are more common among 16–34-year-olds.
  • Binge drinking can affect your mood and your memory and in the longer term can lead to serious mental health problems.

More commonly, binge drinking can lead to anti-social, aggressive and violent behavior.

Am I a binge drinker?

Even if you don’t drink alcohol every day, you could be a binge drinker if you regularly drink:

  • If you drink specifically to get drunk
  • more than the daily amount in a single session
  • If you drink quickly.

If you find it hard to stop drinking once you have started, you could also have a problem with binge drinking and possibly alcohol dependence.

Signs you may need help with your binge drinking

Binge drinking is very much related to alcoholism, but the presence of binge drinking doesn’t necessarily mean that a person has a severe alcohol addiction. The binge drinker may simply have unsafe drinking habits.

However, as alcoholism is a serious disease and alcohol abuse can damage the body even in a single binge drinking session, it’s best to recognize the signs of dependency.

  • A person who is alcohol dependent may experience “shakes,” chills, and other physical symptoms.
  • Alcoholics will also allow their habit to begin interfering with their families, careers, and other aspects of their day-to-day lives.
  • Binge drinking will become regular, and binges may be extreme.
  • Many alcoholics begin to develop a tolerance. This causes them to engage in more and more serious binge drinking sessions with greater consequences to their bodies and lives.

All binge drinking is best avoided, but binge drinking can become alcoholism when it occurs on any sort of a regular basis. It’s also important to note that there’s no “right” age to binge drink. While binging may be more common among certain social groups, for instance younger males, it’s dangerous and can lead to addiction at any age, so it’s important to seek treatment.

 

 

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Alcohol Poisoning

Posted on by
Reply

Last weekend, Indiana law enforcement picked up a man with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .552, almost seven times the legal limit. James Henderson, 28, was found unconscious on the side of a road.  His level of intoxication would kill most people, or put them in a coma. Remarkably, Henderson was alive, though suffering from extreme alcohol poisoning.

Alcohol poisoning is a serious — and sometimes deadly — consequence of drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. When a person has alcohol poisoning they have consumed a toxic amount of alcohol, usually over a short period of time. Their BAC is so high it is considered toxic to their body. Alcohol poisoning can be life threatening and requires immediate medical care.

Signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning include:

  • Cold, clammy, pale, or bluish skin
  • Unconscious or unable to be roused
  • Slow or irregular breathing
  • Puking repeatedly or uncontrollably
  • Seizures

Alcohol poisoning commonly results from binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as more than five drinks in a sitting for men, and more than four for women.  Alcohol poisoning can also occur when someone drinks household products containing alcohol, either accidentally or on purpose.

Alcohol slows involuntary body responses like gag reflex and breathing. With enough alcohol, these reactions can slow to a dangerous level or stop altogether. Someone who has alcohol poisoning is at risk for decreased breathing and gag reflex. Alcohol also irritates the stomach. Many people who are suffering from alcohol poisoning vomit. If the person suffering from alcohol poisoning is unconscious when vomiting begins, they run the risk of asphyxiating on the vomit, particularly if they are lying on their back. People with alcohol poisoning may have seizures or succumb to hypothermia, since alcohol lowers your internal body temperature.

When you drink alcohol, your liver has to filter out the alcohol, a toxin, from your blood. Alcohol poisoning occurs because you are ingesting alcohol more quickly than your liver can metabolize it. In general, the liver metabolizes one drink an hour, although there are slight variations based on sex, size, and race. If you consume more than one drink per hour, the alcohol begins to build up in the blood stream and you increase your risk for alcohol poisoning. Even after a person stops drinking, alcohol in the stomach and intestine continues to enter the bloodstream and circulate throughout the body. This means that your blood alcohol content continues to rise, even after you have passed out.

If you suspect someone has alcohol poisoning, you should immediately call 911. Stay with the person until help arrives. If the person is vomiting due to alcohol poisoning, turn them on their side. Try to keep the person suffering from alcohol poisoning conscious by talking to them. Cover them with a blanket and wait for emergency personnel.  It is important to call for medical help, because someone suffering from alcohol poisoning could seize, die, or experience permanent brain damage if they are not medically treated in a timely manner.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Binge Drinking Claims Another Victim

Status

Reply

Binge Drinking Claims Another Victim

Baylor University’s Sigma Chi fraternity is being sued in connection with a Texas teenager’s alleged binge drinking. Megan Helal, 19, attended a fraternity-sponsored party at a local bar and consumed 10-17 drinks in a 2-hour span. She was found unconscious and later died at the hospital. Helal’s parents are now suing the fraternity for negligence. The lawsuit alleges the party was reckless and irresponsible. It names several members of the fraternity, the fraternity’s national chapter, as well as the owner and employees at the bar where Helal was served liquor.

Megan Helal’s death is not uncommon among American college students. 44% of students attending 4-year colleges drink alcohol at the binge level or greater. Binge drinking is a pattern of excessive alcohol consumption. It is defined as consuming more than five drinks for men-and four drinks for women- in one sitting. Since 1993, the number of college students who binge drink and use drugs has remained largely the same, but the amount of drugs and alcohol consumed by college students has risen dramatically. The number of college students who meet the criteria for substance abuse and dependence is almost three times the national average.

The financial impact of binge drinking and blackouts is significant.  Binge drinking alcohol can cause memory loss similar to amnesia. These periods of alcohol-related amnesia are generally referred to as blackouts. A blackout — the inability to recall events without a full loss of consciousness — means sufferers can walk, talk, drive or have sex but can’t remember any of it — creating a greater risk for car crashes, other accidents, unwanted pregnancy and STDs. A recent study estimated that on a large college campus (40,000 students or more) blackout-associated emergency department visit costs would range from $469,000 to $546,000 per year.

So why do so many college students binge drink? It has to do with the fact that binge-drinking alcohol in college is socially acceptable, almost expected. Many college students binge drink as a result of peer pressure or social expectations. In pop-culture, college is portrayed as a non-stop party. When young people go off to college falsely thinking that “everybody” is drinking and bingeing, they are more likely to binge drink in order to conform.

So what’s the risk? Obviously, binge drinking risks overdose, especially when combined with other drugs. Also, many people report engaging in high-risk behavior while binge drinking and especially during a blackout. They drive while intoxicated, get into fights, or engage in unprotected sex. Blackouts are a strong predictor of alcohol related emergency room visits.

Further, recent studies have shown that the brain is still developing through age 25. Alcohol, particularly episodes of binge drinking, affects the part of the brain that handles impulse control and decision-making. Damage to the brain early can make it hard for young people to make healthy choices about acceptable alcohol use and impulse control later in life. This can lead to many difficulties, including a higher incidence of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.