So do you know these alcoholics who don’t get drunk every day but once a month (or once every 2 or 3 months) they lap up enormous quantities of liquor and drop down in a blackout?
Do they not even have a physical dependence? Because if they do, how come they can go without liquor for a month or however long their dry spell lasts?
Also, does anybody know if there is a word for this form of alcoholism in English? There is in Russian, and this form of the addiction is extremely common.
I think the usual term is binge drinker (though I’ve also seen that term used of people who drink too much on a very regular basis).
Maybe ‘occasional (or periodic) binge drinker’ would cover it.
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I’m starting to be… kind of (read: extremely) sceptical about a lot of CW* about addiction.
I don’t have a workig hypothesis but the idea that everybody is equally prone to every kind of addiction (which seems to be the CW) doesn’t seem to work.
For bingers, I might hypothesize that they psychologically need the relief but a very big dose can last a long time. It’s like how some people have to let all their dishes get dirty before washing them all at once.
*conventional wisdom
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Oh, it’s absolutely not true that everybody is equally likely to get addicted to any substance. You are right, there is much stupidity said on the subject.
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Totally besides the point, but you will see CW referred to in regards to lasers, as in continuous wave (CW) mode of operation. I chuckled at myself reading cliff’s comment and my mind going to “skeptical about a lot of continuous wave about additction.” Us nerds like are easily amused.
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I thought it was a TV channel at first.
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I think I’ve also heard “payday drunk”.
The idea is that they stay sober until they have enough capital to drink themselves into oblivion.
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I would say “going on a bender” but that describes the action not the alcoholism specifically.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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