Most people like to have a drink at the end of a hard day. But, if your alcohol use goes much beyond this, you may end up drinking too much. Part of the problem here is that a lot of people struggle to know when too much is too much. That can lead to dependence over time and then on to addiction if you are not careful.
A particular scourge that we all need to be aware of is binge drinking, which can be a very dangerous thing indeed. Binge drinking has risks that you would rather not have in your life. Let’s take a look at just what those risks actually are.
Injury
One of the most common immediate risks of binge drinking is to suffer an injury. This could happen for a number of reasons. It may be driving under the influence and crashing a vehicle, for example. Or it could be getting into a fight with someone.
Perhaps it is just a case of not quite being able to control your motor functions, and ending up falling over or down some stairs. However it happens, this is quite a common side-effect of binge drinking.
Violence
Another immediate effect of too much alcohol can be violence, which may be inflicted upon the drinker or by the drinker themself. This can include sexual assault, as well as fist-fights, and worse. It may also, in extreme cases, include suicide or extreme self-harm, often in a way which would not have happened without alcohol being present.
Sexual Health Consequences
If you binge drink and then have unprotected sex, there are numerous potential consequences that you might need to face, either now or later on. For instance, you may get an STI, or spread one, or both. You might cause an unwanted pregnancy. You might also make it more likely to have a miscarriage or stillbrith. Clearly, these are effects most of us want to avoid.
Chronic Diseases
But it’s not just those immediate behavioral effects. Binge drinking is also strongly linked to many chronic, long-term diseases and conditions. You are much more likely to develop high blood pressure, for example, or any other heart problems, and you could be more likely to have a heart attack in your life, possibly quite young. You are more likely to have a stroke, or to get liver disease, too. You are also more likely to develop many kinds of cancer, from breast, to liver, colon, rectum, mouth, and more.
Memory Failures
Binge drinking is also related to failures of memory. At first, these might not seem too problematic, but over time they can become quite upsetting, and can even be indicative of other cognitive decline as well, which leads to a poorer quality of life, worse relationships and many other effects besides these.
All in all, binge drinking is very harmful for you. If you are trying to get a handle on your alcohol consumption, you may find that we can help. Get in touch today.