The Effects Of Binge Drinking On Teens

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).

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.

“’ Were seeing kids coming in with blood alcohol see levels in the mid-.3s, even .4, which four to five times the legal limit for driving. That’s the level at which 50% of people die,”’ says Dr. Mary Claire O’ Brien, an emergency medicine physician and associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Underage drinking has become an issue in young teens. Teens are drinking large amounts of alcohol in short periods of time. The effects of alcohol in adolescents are much more life threating then an adult. In the article “The Underage Drinking “, Emily Listfield acknowledges that binge drinking is common in adolescents, it causes long term effects, physical injury and death.

Many students in college throughout the country participate in drinking for many different reasons. People drink for sports events, social purposes, or simply for a party. Binge drinking is an important issue that requires more attention from students, parents, and the media. Drinking can be acceptable at the correct age and if it is not abused. Many people binge drink for a number of reasons. Alcohol can be often viewed as “liquid confidence”. People tend to partake in the activity to lower social anxiety unfortunately not realizing the physical and emotional effects that may come along. There are many different alternatives that can be taken in place of or to help the use of consuming alcohol. Drinking alcohol can be illegal if underage and taken to a further extent that shouldn’t be reached. There have been many instances where people have been extremely injured or even died due to the use of binge drinking and it needs to be taken more seriously let alone controlled.

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

“What is binge drinking?” Binge drinking is the pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration level to 0.08 g/dL. Typically g drinks for college students in about two hours. Drinking this way can cause pose serious health and safety risks. It immediately takes effect to your coordination.

Oftentimes students focus on their studies from Sunday through Thursday but as the weekend approaches, their attention shifts from academics to partying. The fact that the majority of their alcohol consumption is over a three day period (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) could be considered binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as having four to five regular drinks consumed in one sitting, at two or more events within one months time span (Acuff, Soltis, Dennhardt, Bosari, Martens, Murphy, 2017). Another repercussion from binge drinking is second-hand effects. Inevitably, those students that are partying and drinking need the support and guidance of their more academically minded friends. Following a night of drinking, perhaps the drinker needs a ride from a sober friend or perhaps there was drama centered around those that were drinking and need the comfort and encouragement from their sober counterparts. A negative experience with alcohol as a non-drinker defines second-hand effects (Cabalatungan, & McCarthy, 2015).

“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.

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.

This study was developed in order to discover what university students saw as binge drinking.

One risk factor of binge drinking is the alcohol use of peers, and being peer pressured into consuming high amounts of alcohol. As claimed by DrinkWise (2017), peer pressure can lead individuals, especially teenagers to do things that they usually wouldn’t do, and stop them from doing something they would want to do. Peer pressure can confront the individual’s views and morals of what is right and wrong. This is significantly evident in the youth when alcohol is involved, which is due to young people wanting to have a sense of belonging, and wanting to be liked and accepted by their peers. Therefore falling into the pressure of binge drinking in order to fit in with the people around themselves that like to binge

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

One of my youth pastors told the teens at church on a Wednesday night, “Don’t start a habit in your younger years that is going to control the way you live your adult years .” Whenever I heard this statement, I thought of teens binge drinking in college. College drinking has become a major issue for people under the age of twenty- one. Binge drinking becomes addicting, especially for people under the age of twenty-one. Understanding the problem and consequences of binge drinking will help to show that lowering the drinking age will not help the problem.

Binge drinking is the topic I have chosen for sixth form students because it is the age where students have come of age to drink legally and buy alcohol which may make them feel like they are old enough to drink excessively as they may believe it is expected of them at that age, since not only does society expects sixth form students to drink they are also expected by friends to socialise with them by going out to clubs and pubs. Students