Binge Drinking and College Students

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

Binge Drinking is when excessive drinking occurs not in the open public. A lot of problems happen due to binge drinking

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.

We are all aware that there are different types of drinking. There is binge drinking,

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 is defined as the act of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol over a short period of time for the purpose of becoming intoxicated quickly (Australian Drug Foundation, 2014). Binge drinking has become an excessively popular behaviour among young adults. According to Virtual Medical Centre (2018) 28.3 percent of females aged under nineteen-binge drink, while only 24 percent of nineteen-year-old males binge drink. Binge drinking is considered to be a predominate behaviour for youths but in fact, the rates for binge drinking are higher amongst adults. Virtual Medical Centre (2008) states that, in 2004, about 48 percent of adult males and 32 percent of adult females participate in binge drinking at least once a year.

“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.

The Foundation for a Drug Free World (2017) determines that binge drinking is the action of ingesting high volumes of alcohol in a short period of time, which can be usually outlined as five or more drinks for a man, and four or more drinks for a woman in one sitting.The foundation (2017) also states that alcohol is the leading cause of death in teenagers internationally, when compared to all other drugs combined. With 32% of youth binge drinkers being illicit substance users as well.

Binge drinking is, defined as people consuming a large amount of alcohol in a small amount of time and planning to get drunk (NHS, 2016). Binge drinking has now become a bigger problem in the world, binge drinking used to be described as heavy drinking over several days, but now it is known as a heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. From the researchers ' evidence it is thought that binge drinking for men is to have eight or more drinks and for women, six or more in a short period of time.

Alcohol abuse is a serious health problem when it comes to college students. "The average amount of binge drinkers on college campuses is 50% of men and 39% of women" (<a href="http://www.oregoncounseling.org/ArticlesPapers/">http://www.oregoncounseling.org/ArticlesPapers/</a>). There are various reasons why students drink and serious short and long term effects on the body and mind. Alcoholism is a serious problem for college students and there are many actions being taken to try to lessen the problem among colleges throughout the country.

After researching ‘what is binge drinking’ I found that it is the consumption of a large amount of alcohol on a single occasion or drinking at a constant rate over a number of days or even weeks. Binge drinking is risky business. The powerful liquid known as alcohol has major effects on a person. Alcohol has the ability to wreck a person’s life and change it permanently. Alcohol impairs judgement making it easy for someone to do or say something that he or she will regret. For a male to binge drink he has to drink 5 or more standard drinks in a 2 hour period. For a female it is only 4 or more standard drinks in a 2 hour period. This could vary of the weight and age of the person. When conducting my survey I asked the participants how many drinks they believe classified as binge drinking.

The overconsumption of alcohol in a single occasion or Binge drinking on North American college campuses has become an integral part of residential college campus culture. Binge drinking according to the CDC, is defined as the consumption of four or more drinks for women, and more than five drinks for men. It is becoming the norm on residential campuses and students above or below the legal drinking age are engaging in Binge drinking. This behavior can be dangerous, for both adults and youths. Binge drinking has been responsible for more than half of an estimated 80, 000 deaths each year in the United States during 2002-2015. Binge drinking is more common amongst adult and youth males between the ages of 18-24, in the United States. The culture of a college residential campus has great influence on the frequency of the behavior within all age groups and both sexes. Although men were reported to over-consume alcohol more than women, the number of binge drinkers is increasing for the female youth and young adults. Similar to men, the most reported age for female binge drinkers was 18- 24 years old. Interestingly, binge drinking was more prevalent in households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more.

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 have occurred due to binge breaking increasing the total numbers from 1,600 to 1,700 (Hingson, Heeren,, & Wechsler n.d.). Many other health issues that are associated with binge drinking are: unintentional injuries, intentional injuries such as sexual assault, alcohol poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, liver disease, sexual dysfunction, and poor watch of diabetes (Fact Sheets - Binge Drinking, 2015).

Apart from being the most common form of excessive alcohol consumption, binge drinking is defined as a blood alcohol level of .08 g/dL usually achieved by consuming 5 or more drinks for men and 4 or more drinks for women within two hours (CDC, 2016). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, binge drinking is associated with many health problems. Some of the top health problems include unintentional injuries such as car crashes, falls, burns, and drowning (CDC, 2015). Others include

Binge or excessive drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, health, and education on college campuses today. Binge or excessive drinking by college students has become a social phenomena in which college students do not acknowledge the health risks that are involved with their excessive drinking habits. Furthermore college students do not know enough about alcohol in general and what exactly it does to the body or they do not pay attention to the information given to them. There needs to be a complete saturation on the campus and surrounding areas, including businesses and the media, expressing how excessive drinking is not attractive and not socially