Question by Eliza17: Can binge drinking be considered a disease?
My brother is a binge drinker and my dad believes that its a disease and that he might have inherited the problem from a family member. Is this possible?
Best answer:
Answer by Nans
I think it depends on how long his binges are and how often. I don’t think its a disease though. I think that its cultivated behavior that becomes a habit and then the body becomes dependent. It can be psycologically habit forming to drink like that, but I don’t think its genetic
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Influenced – Yes
Inherited – No
Binge drinking is drinking too much and can cause purging, it is not a disease.
Binge drinking is a behaviour and is not considered a disease itself, however it can cause diseases such as liver disease etc. It cannot be genetically inherited however.
The diseases associated with excessive regular alcohol consumpion are:
“cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, epilepsy, polyneuropathy, alcoholic dementia, heart disease, increased chance of cancer, nutritional deficiencies, sexual dysfunction, and death from many sources”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism#Physical_health_effects)
The binge drinking itself is due to the attitude of the person – in this case your brother. Attitudes are influenced by many factors, including friends, family and popular culture/media. Therefore if another family member of yours binge drinks, your brother may have been influenced by him/her, among other influences.
All of my friends binge drink fairly regularly. It is easy for me to step back and realise that do this because they are influenced (subconsiously and consiously) by popular culture – drinking is portrayed favourably in most teenage movies, American Pie etc. Although it is true that they pursue binge drinking because they want to, the reason they want to is a result of the society they live in.