What’s The Difference Between Alcoholism and Binge Drinking?

Alcoholism is a disease. People with alcoholism cannot predict how much they will drink, the consequences associated with their drinking or how long they will continue to drink, despite the health risks and problems associated with their consumption, according to addiction therapists. This level of physical dependency requires the alcoholic to seek help through an alcohol treatment center.

Alcoholics are physically dependent upon alcohol and have withdrawal symptoms when they quit drinking, such as: delirium tremens, nervousness, insomnia, seizures, etc. But what about binge drinkers? Are they alcoholic? Is binge drinking as dangerous as chronic alcoholism? Addiction therapists say yes.

Binge drinking is a drinking pattern where men drink five or more drinks in a row, or women drink four or more drinks in a row, but this consumption does not occur on a daily basis. Even if a person’s alcoholism has not progressed to daily drinking or full blown dependency on alcohol, problems can exist that are extremely dangerous to a person’s health. Alcohol treatment centers and addiction therapists realize that binge drinking causes difficulties in a person’s life that can become life threatening. Some problems associated with binge drinking are: alcohol poisoning, driving while intoxicated, loss of control, and sexual promiscuity.

Most alcohol treatment centers believe that binge drinking can lead to alcoholism, affecting a person before they realize they are physically dependent on alcohol. For a time, people who binge drink do not think their alcohol use is a serious problem, but once they cross the line into physical dependency, these former binge drinkers have reached the point of alcoholism, a disease that makes quitting drinking nearly impossible without some type of help through alcohol detox and an alcohol treatment center.