What Is Binge Drinking?

The article “Why the Drinking Age Should be Lowered: An Option based upon Research” is about twenty years of research based underage drinking done by Ruth Engs. It talks about the way things were in the past compared to how things are now. The research done for this article shows that binge drinking is mostly found in the age below 21 due to the lack of being taught responsible drinking habits. In this article there are many statistics dealing with drinking at a college level over a long span of

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.).

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

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

These statistics’ prove Engs theory that because Alcohol consumption is illegal for young adults tend to consume alcohol and abuse alcohol more often. If their theory was true the binge drinking rate for 21 to 25 years olds would not be 45.5% in 2010. Another statistic that proves Engs “forbidden fruit theory” wrong is the statistic noted by the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study, they found that a proportion of those 19- to 22-year-olds that binged drank two weeks prior to their surveyed in 1984 was 40.7% and their current study in 2006 found that only 38.1% binged drank 2 weeks prior to the recent survey, Which; proves that the 1984 act has decreased binge drinking by 2% in America. This drop in binge drinking rates may only be a small drop in binge drinking rates. Which, convey that Americans do have a high percentage of binge drinkers. This problem brings up another argument that supporters of lowering the drinking age bring up.

“Getting Serious about Eradicating Binge Drinking,” a text written Henry Wechsler was first introduced to me in my English 102 class. In this Essay Wechsler brought to the reader’s attention that binge drinking was major problem on many college campuses. Wechsler aims to convince readers that binge drinking is a problem that needs to be stopped. Some of Wechsler’s statements made in this text were persuasive while others were opinions.

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.

The lifecycle of binge drinking has been established through the NIAA’s definition of binge drinking which defines the problem. The public has transformed it into a public issue with organizations such as SADD and Alcoholics Anonymous. The lifecycle of the binge drinking problem continues with a debate over the cause of it, and finally finishes with coming up with a solution to reduce the amount of binge drinking on campuses (Lundquist Lecture January 25). UMass Amherst has a history of binge

Presidents of college campuses around the nation face issues of underage drinking and binge drinking on a regular basis and realizes that it is a danger and a problem. “Alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., a major contributing factor to unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death for youths and young adults, and accounts for an estimated 75,000 or more deaths in the United States annually” (Wechsler 2010). Binge drinking can be loosely defined as consuming five or more drinks at one sitting for men and four drinks for women. Binge drinking amongst college students is a social activity that allows students to let loose and “fit in”.

According to an article published by the American Medical Association, roughly 11 million young Americans consume alcohol, and a disconcerting number of them binge drink, described as "consuming five or more drinks in a row, one or more times in a two-week period". Drinking

Both articles have many similarities; both agree that binge drinking is a problem among adolescents across the country. Binge drinking is defined by both articles as, “five or more drinks in a row for boys and four or more drinks in a row for girls” (Wuethrich, p.58-59). Both articles agree that one major

Research has supported the observation that young people in America consume alcohol regularly; this prevalence of use increases rapidly during adolescence, as well as a few years afterward (Wagenaar and Wolfson 37). This has come to be a problem among college students. It has been shown through extensive quantitative and qualitative research that those under twenty-one years of age are able to obtain alcohol, which allows them to binge drink. Binge drinking holds many problems for college students: alcohol poisoning, DUIs, traffic accidents, and even fatalities.