Could someone who was a binge drinker but in no way physically dependant upon alcohol who decided to drink almost every night for two months have made themselves physically dependant upon it to the extent it would be dangerous to stop without medical supervision?
I would be different for every person, there is also going to be a distance between where you’ll notice symptoms and entering fatal seizure territory.
I was a very heavy drinker for many years, at times I was physicaly dependent and other times not so much. An alcoholic can be alcohol free for twent years or more and his disease will still progress, a problem drinker may become dependent but once he goes through withdrawal should be able to stay sober if he chooses. Not uncommon in young party animal types to do this. Less common in adults but sometimes divorce or something traumatic can trigger a self medicating phase that they can recover from and proceed to drink normal from then on out.
Speaking for myself I didn’t drink for over 20 years but now enjoy an occassional beer. I always knew I wasn’t a true alcoholic but passed the qualifing test with flying colors. I used the program of AA to make a lot of adjustments in my life and am very grateful for it.
Well, only about 5% of heavy alcoholics will actually go into “delirium tremens” About 50% of heavy alcoholics will see some form of withdraw symptoms. Search wiki for Alcohol withdrawal syndrome and DTs for details.
So for the OP’s quest, it is a potshot to get DTs and withdrawal to begin with, and this happens after prolong exposure, aka years of abuse, so two months isn’t really that much risk.
Of course, you will have problems fitting into society being drunk all of the time for 2 months straight. Expect to encounter social strains far before you run into physical problems.
In this scenario I was only imagining the person was drunk from say 10pm through to whenver they sobered up in the morning, probably let’s call that 10am.
If someone is only drinking for a few hours every day can we assume they are not physically dependant?
Two months of daily “recreational” drinking is definitely long enough for some people to become dependent. I’ll occasionally go through a phase where I’ll drink much heavier and more often than normal, say when I’m on a vacation, or when the holiday season starts. I’ll notice mild but distracting withdrawal symptoms after only a solid week of drinking. Usually I’ll wake up drenched in sweat for a night or two, and be sort of grouchy/unhappy for a couple days. But after just a couple days it clears up and I’m fine. Despite this I’ve never really had a problem with drinking, and even during these withdrawal phases there’s no craving for alcohol. On the contrary, I usually feel kind of put off by the thought of booze during these periods.
It’s not hard for me to imagine someone becoming quite dependent on alcohol over a 2 month period of heavy drinking. The chances of them having any life-threatening complications is probably slim, but the withdrawal symptoms could easily be very uncomfortable to say the least.
Every day? No, we certainly cannot assume that. During my younger days I witnessed chronic alcoholics who were drunk for less than an hour a day before they passed out. A small bottle of Thunderbird was way more than enough for them. In fact, a few sips would do it. That’s why they banded together – better to share it than pass out and get the TBird stolen.
There is no real answer to your question besides “It depends”.
And why do you ask? Perhaps that’s the more important question.
My sister works in a hospital in Nebraska. She says they give folks a can of Bud Light in certain cases. I thought they had stopped doing that, but apparently not. If you’re in the process of quitting and start to feel weird then have a sip. But continuing to drink each day “to avoid problems” ain’t gonna cut it.
I have witnessed several seizures following bad 30 day runs on alcohol. The seizure will usually occur about 72 hours after one quits drinking. Most I know are so used to detoxing they just take it like a man and sweat and shake it out.
The determining factor would be whether they could go past their usual start time without needing a drink, or skip a night.
It usually works like this …
Someone drinks, regularly (say 10pm after the kids are in bed). They establish the habit, but they can skip an evening, or start at 10:30, 11pm when they have to.
Eventually, that first drink has to be at 10pm. And skipping a night isn’t really an option without feeling terrible for the next day, or not sleeping. Then a quick swallow at 9:30pm to see you through to 10pm helps, but you don’t really drink before 10pm …
And then it is hair-of-dog drinks in the morning, and …
Note:, this not my personal experience. But I’ve known people from that path.
Si
Can’t really offer anything other than my personal experience here: I usually drink heavily once or twice a week (as in binge drinking at parties), and apart from being hungover the next day, I feel no particular side effects. (The need for more drink in this case). I will typically drink moderately two or three times during the week, (beers at home with dinner, meeting friends at a pub and downing a couple of pints and so on).
During vacations I will often go for a week or two of drinking every day, but it will vary from heavy drinking (as in party!) to more moderate constant buzz drinking, then go back to my regular drinking patterns when the vacation ends.
I’ve been doing this for the past 14-15 years, and apart from the fact that I’ve probably damaged my liver and such due to excessive intake of alchohol, I’ve never felt a physical dependancy on alchohol. That is - I can easily go for a month without drinking, without any physical symptoms. (The psychological ones are worse tough, as that means going an entire month without a party 
)
That works if you don’t mind a 1-2% mortality rate. About 1/3 of untreated alcohol withdrawal seizures progress to Delerium Tremens.
And most seizures occur within 12-48 hours after the last drink, and some can be seen as early as 2 hours.
Theoretically, yes. But too many variables to know for certain.
The person’s age, gender, general medical health/fitness, and race (yes, really) are all factors. Past consumption history is also a factor. As in, how long have they been a binge drinker? Have they become physically dependent in the past (even several years ago). Etc., etc…
In addition, if all the above are equal between two different individuals, you still don’t know. Every body can react differently. Though there are sort of “risk factors” which can make it more likely for some.