Binge Drinking Statistics

The Harvard School of Public Health has done numerous studies on college binge drinking. These studies are known as the standard for binge drinking data. They define binge drinking

Binge drinking is considered to be a health problem because nearly half of all college students have reported to drink more than 5 drinks is a short period of time (Hennessee, 2013). There has been about 1,825 college students who have died from alcohol-related injuries such as motor-vehicle crashes with the students being between 18 - 24 years old (College Drinking Fact Sheet, 2015). An increase of 6% of college deaths has occurred due to binge breaking increasing the total amount from 1,600 to 1,700 (Hingson, Heeren, & Wechsler, n.d.).

“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.

First of all, binge drinking has been a problem for some time now. It has climbed over the past few years, capturing more attention from the media. A study

What do failing grades, frequent memory lapses, fights, brutal hangovers and unplanned sexual activity all have in common? They are all frequent results of binge drinking by college students. On a typical Friday or Saturday night you can find the average college student out drinking and having fun. Normally partying with friends at a party, bar, or club; most of these college students are underage consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, or as its better known, “binge drinking.”The term binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men and four or more drinks in a row by women, at least once in a two week period. “One” drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or one shot of liquor. Alcohol

Binge drinking is one of the worst social behaviours as it starts at a young age and that is where the obsession starts, as an Australia study shows that 2,00 kids that have a sip of alcohol when they are young due to their parents. This can lead to future binge drinking by the time they are 15 to 16 years old. It has been estimated that 2,643 Australians die due to binge drinking each year. Some of the effects of binge drinking can cause are a loss of control of brain function, less aware of your surroundings as well as loss of your tolerance levels so they drink more and more. This is why binge drinking is an unsafe social behaviour.

(Alcohol and Public Health,2017) study found the following: Binge drinking is a serious but preventable public health problem.

A man or a woman suffers, they have a distinct physical desire to consume alcohol beyond their capacity to control it, regardless of all rules of common sense. The symtoms of being an alcoholic is having rituals and being irritated/annoyed when these rituals are disturbed or commented on. This could be drinks before/during/after meals or after work. Dropping hobbies and activities the person used to enjoy; losing interest in them. A person who abuses alcohol may have many of these signs and symtoms- but they do not have the withdrawal symtoms like an alcoholic does, nor the same degree of compulsion to drink. Then comes along, binge drinking. When a woman consumes over six units and a man consumes more than eight units of alcohol in one sitting. Sipping wine, beer, or spirits three or four times per week increases the risk of binge drinking. Men who drink 22 or more units of alcohol a week have a 20% higher rate of admissions into acute care hospitals than non-drinkers. Healthy young adults who regularly binge drink may have a higher risk of heart disease later in life. "Underage drinking should not be a normal part of growing up. It's a serious and persistent public health problem that puts our young people and our communities in danger. Even though drinking is often glamorized, the truth is that

“Binge drinking means drinking so much within about 2 hours that blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels reach 0.08g/dl.” As the CDC reports “One in six U.S. adults binge drinks about four times a month, consuming about eight drinks per binge” . Alcohol companies continue to make money from U.S adults who are dependent on alcohol for social interaction. The CDC also informs us that “The prevalence of binge drinking among men is twice the prevalence among women” it might be due to the fact the men are influenced by their peers who are more likely to drinking publicly as opposed to women who are more reserved.

Those that participate in binge drinking do it for many different reasons, a bad test grade, roommate arguments, celebration for a job well done, peer pressure, or simply because it is the weekend. No one is saying that it is wrong to go out and have a few drinks but when students go out and just drink to get drunk, actions must be taken to stop such activity. According to the graph on the next page done by the Harvard Public School of Health it is clear that a majority of students drink to simply get wasted. [Colorado State University 1] The number of binge drinkers may not have gone up in 1999 compared to 1997, for every five students two are binge drinkers, or 44%. [Wechsler #2, 1] However, the intensity of drinking has increased, when students are going out they are having more to drink. [Wechsler #2, 2]

Binge drinking can have a major effect on crime rates. These crimes can include, physical abuse, sexual abuse like rape, and domestic abuse. When a young person comes out of a club after binge drinking they wouldn’t know where they were and would often go back to anyone’s house, this is when the dangers then come into the situations, they are put into situations that they don’t want to be in but they can’t get out of them because they put themselves into them serious situations. Often this causes more damage in later life, some decide that they can’t take the pain of knowing they have been abused and then commit suicide and the rates of suicide is increasing as the years go on which clearly shows there is a link to binge drinking. If there

According to Getting Stupid the reason why so many adolescent kids binge drink is because when they are drunk, dopamine is released in the prefrontal cortex, which gives you a feeling of pleasure. Teens want this pleasure to reoccur, so they drink again. After a long period of usage a tolerance is built and more alcohol is needed to receive the same pleasure, which leads to binge drinking (Wuethrich, p.62).

Australia needs to wake up and realize that society is influencing us to develop the binge culture. Thus, making binge drinking into a social issue. There is a sharp increase of binge drinking in the younger generation with the statistics showing 86.2% of Australian teenagers aged 14-18 years have consumed alcohol. The underage youth are stating that their parents are allowing it, that it is easy to get the alcohol, drinking’s cheaper and that they are getting highly influenced seeing the older (legal aged) youth drinking. Consequently, the younger youth cannot comprehend why they cannot drink

Binge drinking is one of the leading causes of drug-related deaths among teenagers in Australia (youth central 2017).Due to its popularity in Australia alcohol is not seen as a drug but as a way of socializing among teens. Binge drinking is defined as ‘drinking heavy amounts of alcohol in short period of time with the intent of becoming intoxicated (youth central 2017)'. Partaking in binge drinking particularly from a young age may result in a number of long-term effects to the body. These may include brain damage, liver damage, stomach ulcers, sexual problems, weight problems and depression (youth central 2017). Regular consumption of large amounts alcohol can lead to teens partaking in risky behavior and having a server impact on their social life and relationships (youth central 2017). Such as drink driving, getting into fights and arguments, missing school or work, feeling depressed, passing out, loss of valuable or personal items and having unsafe sex(better health.vic.gov.au,2016). Binge drink has also been linked to a number of financial issues among teenagers who cannot afford to buy alcohol, therefore, resulting in searching for other alternatives to afford alcohol such as selling drugs.

According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), binge drinking is defined as a pattern of drinking that elevates one’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL. Alternatively, binge drinking can be defined as having five or more alcoholic beverages for males and four or more alcoholic beverages for females within two hours (NIAAA, 2017). Binge drinking exceeds the appropriate amount of time needed for the body to metabolize alcohol, which is approximately one drink per hour. One drink is equivalent to a 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or a 1.25 ounce shot of liquor. There is one primary area of concern that has consistently ranked as the nation’s most common setting for binge drinking: college campuses. For many college students, alcohol use is a very important part of university culture. In the United States, many people equate the college experience with drinking and partying.