Binge Drinking Versus Daily Drinking Transcript

This question is from James Carmichael on YouTube:

I’m a binge drinker. I only drink once or twice a week, usually on Thursdays because I don’t work on Fridays and usually Friday or Saturday nights.

I can’t go out and have a sensible night, if there is such a thing. I drink until I can’t drink anymore, but I can go through the week without drinking at all apart from those days.

I’m only 27, but I’ve really recognised that drinking is a huge problem in my life and I really want to give it up.

Over the last two years it’s started taking me two or even three days to get over a hangover and feel normal again. Drinking has led on to other things such as cocaine use and smoking which I do full time now.

Is there a different approach for binge drinkers as opposed to people who drink every day?

I think all of us are binge drinkers to a degree or another. I used to drink most days but I used to have the odd day off.

Mostly I couldn’t binge drink. I couldn’t go out and drink my normal twenty pints in one session if I had to get up in the morning and go to work. So I would have to keep it down to five or six pints of whatever it was or a bottle of wine which I did in most nights.

Like I said, I couldn’t really go over the top unless it was on a weekend, unless I didn’t have to get up in the morning. Once I was self-implied, if I am in the mood for it, I can binge drink. I would binge drink and I just wouldn’t get up and do any work in the morning.

Perceiving the Consequences

I think it all boils down to that – if there hadn’t been consequences. When I talk about consequences, I’m talking about the feeling that there’s something wrong, that you’re getting damaged.

Regardless of what damage is being done, if you don’t perceive or feel it, then it’s not really a consequence. If you don’t perceive somebody is talking about you or that there is any real issues with your work, regardless of what other people think about it, then it’s not really a consequence because you do don’t perceive it.

It’s the same with me when I was working. So long as I could pay the bills, pay the rent, pay the food, give my son money, buy him clothes, as long as those things were done, there was really no negative consequences because I didn’t feel them.

Although I might have always thought about what I could do if I didn’t drink, that didn’t matter. It’s not really a consequence. It’s only a quick thought that goes through your head.

So the whole philosophy is based around what we perceive as being normal.

Cycle of Drink-Drunk-Recover

I was in a place where I would drink and I would have the urge to go out and use alcohol, I would get my fix, I would get into the high. Then I would get down off it, I would recover from that hangover. It would basically be about waiting and anticipating the next fix.

So there was that cycle of drink-drunk-recover. Amongst that cycle, there is an element of anticipation where you’re waiting for the next fix. So you’re going around this circle and that clouds and affects everything else in your life.

If you don’t have that cycle, what are your successes going to be in life? How far can you achieve in life if you get yourself off that horrible cycle?

Filling the Gap

Like I said in the last video, if you’re bored once you stop drinking, then it’s your own fault. There’s no reason to be bored. You’re only making yourself bored by sitting around and thinking about being bored.

Life is full of things to do. We’re just lazy because most of the time we choose to fill that boredom and gap with drinking.

Another thing, you said that when you drink, you started to take cocaine and you started to smoke. How many times have you heard that marijuana is the gateway drug to everything else? The reason why marijuana is illegal is it leads to people taking other drugs.

The gateway drugs are cigarettes and alcohol. It has always been the case that you’re not allowed to buy cigarettes and alcohol before you’re eighteen. The legality of being eighteen doesn’t mean anything. I was smoking properly and full time when I was thirteen. I had my first drink when I was a young lad as well. It was easy to get if you want to get your hands on these.

Turning Off the Tap and Feeling Normal Again

Quitting alcohol is the simple process of stopping putting the alcohol inside your body regardless of what level of alcohol use you’re at. You stop the alcohol, you stop the tap. You cut off the source of the problem then you have to deal with your life without alcohol.

If you don’t put the alcohol in, you cannot get worse at it. You can only get better and you have to deal with stuff. That is basically the problem with most people. They are so afraid to quit because they don’t want to imagine what life is going to be like without that little tap. When they have a problem, they turn on the alcohol tap.

So break the tap, throw it away, smash it up with a hammer, get rid of the tap and don’t turn the tap on anymore. That’s how your alcohol problems are sorted out. To stop them from coming back, to stop you recycling back into that old lifestyle, you deal with the problems in your life that turn you to drink.

You say that over the last two or three years, you started to take two or even three days to get over the hangover and feel normal again. It’s only that I’ve stopped drinking that I’ve really understood what normality is. That normality of in between drinks is never there in the first place. It was just a complete and utter delusion because of that cycle of drink-drunk-recover.

So in answer to your question, there is a different approach for binge drinkers because normal drinkers are long-time drinkers. For every different type of problem drinker, there is a different drinking problem. Everyone’s problem has different elements to it. It basically all boils down to the same thing – turn off the alcohol tap.

Stop drinking the alcohol. That’s your first step. Everything else then is just dealing with the lives that you’ve built up around the alcohol, breaking them down bit by bit.

Thanks for visiting the site.
Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!
Kev

Some Previous Posts From Alcohol Mastery

Is Alcohol Affecting Your Relationships?
To Never Drink Again
Alcohol and Infectious Disease

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