Unpacking Binge Drinking

binge drinking

A Guide to understanding and overcoming Binge drinking, characterised by a pattern of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol with the sole purpose of getting intoxicated, has become a concerning phenomenon across many western countries. While the definition of binge drinking varies across countries, the underlying theme remains constant: it’s a harmful, self-destructive behaviour, detrimental to …

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Binge drinking – a regular issue in the news headlines.

Binge drinking

You will need to have lived in a cave in past years to have avoided the scary images all over the news relating to binge drinking. Just about everyone has, on some occasions, found themselves dancing the night away, having indulged in one (or six) too many bevies. We live in a very stressful world, …

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Drink Problems are Treatable With Hypnotherapy

Drink problems

Drinking too much alcohol is a soaring problem amongst the majority of the population. The press regularly speculate on the ever dropping ages of those in the grip of alcohol dependency. There is also a lot more information available to us on healthy consumption of alcohol – we are a good deal more aware of …

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Ring in the changes this year

Binge drinking

Given that the festive season is now out of the way, many of us will turn to our health and look for strategies to make it better. Over the festive season it is fairly common to overindulge, both on food and drink, and not just on Christmas day. The Christmas events and New Year’s festivities …

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Are you able to get a strong emotional response?

Binge drinking

Isn’t it amazing how we can easily respond to a film or even a piece of music in an emotional way? Not really, because what happens is that we relate it in some way to ourselves. Take the video below, for example. Most people will shed a tear or two, if not blub uncontrollably. It’s about a new bride having the “fathers dance” when her father has just passed away.

Hangovers affect the mind as well as the body

Anyone who has woken up after a drinking session will have probably noticed before the way a hangover affects your ability to process mental problems and think clearly. Psychologists at the Keele University’s School of Psychology, studying hangovers, found that apart from causing anxiety, dizziness, feeling sick/vomiting and headaches, hangovers are also detrimental to brain …

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‘Binge-drinking gene’ discovered

Binge drinkingMany genes may be involved in influencing how much we drink

Scientists believe some people have a gene that hard-wires them for binge drinking by boosting levels of a happy brain chemical triggered by alcohol.

The King’s College London team found animals lacking the gene had far less desire for alcohol than those with it.

Brain scans of 663 teenage boys showed those with a version of the gene had heightened dopamine responses in tests.

During a task designed to make them anticipate a reward, these 14-year-old boys had more activity in a part of the brain called the ventral striatum which is known to be involved in dopamine release.

When the researchers later contacted the same boys at the age of 16 and asked them about their drinking habits, they found the boys with the ‘culprit’ gene drank more frequently.

The NHS definition of binge drinking is drinking heavily in a short space of time to get drunk or feel the effects of alcohol.

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Hypnotherapy helps problem drinking in the baby boomers

More NHS money is spent treating alcohol-related illness in the 55 to 74-year-olds than on the young, a study says. The Alcohol Concern report found the cost of hospital admissions linked to heavy drinking 55 to 74-year-olds in 2010-11 was more than £825m. That was 10 times more than 16 to 24-year-olds. Almost £2 billion …

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Over a third of cancers are due to lifestyle

Nearly half of cancers (over 130,000) diagnosed in the UK each year are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and diet, research reveals. Smoking is the biggest culprit, causing 23% of cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report. This is followed in men by a lack of …

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Poor alcohol regulation will cause 250,000 deaths

However, can we really blame the lack of regulation for this problem. Surely the behaviour is set up long before people can afford to buy alcohol. Children are subjected to watching their parents having a great time whilst drinking alcohol, using it to de-stress and even using it to “let off steam”.