Alcohol and heart rythm

I have abused alcohol for years, I started binge drinking when I was 20 years old and now I am 29. Earlier this year I felt my heart start beating funny when I was driving home from an interview, this was in march I believe so I started doing research and obviously the internet tells me it could be a lot of things but the one thing that hit home was alcohol. Long story short I ignored it and kept on drinking until one day it got real bad enough and scared me to the point of stopping as i was having these skipped beat episodes all day and I could feel them almost in my kneck. No pain or shortness of breath just nasty out of order heart beats double beats  skipped beats ,heart back to normal then back at it again. So I found that what I probably was experiencing was holiday heart syndrome. I took it upon my self to stop drinking to see if it would help. The problem consisted  for about 8 days after I took my last drink and then suddenly everything was back to normal no more funny beats during exercise no more funny beats during anything so I continued to not drink. Then after about 2 weeks I thought I could enjoy an occasional 6 pack and be ok which i was for a good long while but then low and behold I started binge  drinking again and then came back the  beat atacks from time to time. Then I quit again and they went away then i started drinking again and they came back. My question is, is it possible that I'm just fine  and the alcohol is causing this because it seems to eventually go away when I stop drinking. Also can alcohol irritate the heart and can little symptoms from holiday heart syndrome last more then 24 hours?

[Jerry_NJ]

Seems you have more empirical experience than most (all?) of us participating on this forum.  I take your testimony to be a clear indictment of binge drinking - suggest you stop.

As to can it cause long term problems?  Yes, including alcoholism, I believe.  Given most heavy (binge?) drinkers don't suffer from the same heart irregularity suggests to me your heart is more sensitive than "average", and you should stop the binge drinking.  Put the money you save from not drinking in a "shoe box" and when it is full, buy something extravagant you'd really enjoy for a reward.    This approached worked for me to stop smoking about 25 years ago, but may not work for you.  But, if it does, it is a WIN-WIN.

[neilix]

ectopic heart beats or palps are quite common with excessive stimulent
there is no danger in most cases but you need a routine ecg just to make sure.

please lilit your drinking though, and if you cannot seek councelling.