BINGE DRINKING

Some researchers define binge drinking as consuming five or more drinks in a row at one sitting for males and four or more in a row for females. Other researchers think that it is a mistake to say that the consumption of only five drinks over the course of an evening is binge drinking. ItÕs been suggested that we define binge drinking as any intoxicated drinking that leads to certain harmful or destructive behaviors. Or perhaps we at least require that a person have a certain minimum level of alcohol in the bloodstream as a prerequisite to be considered a binger.

Be that as it may, 43 % of college students say they are binge drinkers and 21% say they binge frequently, according to the first definition (of 5/4 drinks in a row). As many as 360,000 of the nation's 12 million undergraduate college students will die from alcohol-related causes. This is more than the total number who will receive graduate degrees. Experimenting with alcohol rarely occurs before early adolescence. Yet, within a few short years, alcohol use and binge drinking escalate quickly toward their lifetime peaks.

By the 10th grade, 80% of American adolescents have used alcohol, 63% have been drunk, and more than 25% have been drunk 10 or more times. Although some statistics claim that binge "drinking among high school seniors has declined from 41.2% to 31.3% between 1980 and 1997. That's a drop of almost one-fourth (24%). binge" drinking among high school seniors has declined from 41.2% to 31.3% between 1980 and 1997. That's a drop of almost one-fourth (24%). However, national surveys have shown a significant decline in the use of other drugs by high school seniors and college-age youths, but there have been only modest declines in binge drinking numbers.

Alcoholic beverages are consumed by teenagers and young adults drink at about the same rates they did 5 years ago. Binge drinking increases the risk for alcohol-related injury as alcohol is often combined with other high risk activities, such as impaired driving. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 4 leading injury-related causes of death among people under the age of 20 are car accidents, homicides, suicides, and drowning and many of these are tied to alcohol consumption. Alcohol abuse has many harmful short- and long-term effects. It contributes to about 1/3 of the traffic fatalities among older adolescents and is a first step towards alcohol abuse and drug abuse.

Those who binge drink, either male or female, are more likely to damage property, have trouble with authorities, miss classes, have hangovers, and experience injuries than those who do not. Studies show that females are more likely to become depressed. The latest research points to evidence that girls who begin drinking in their early teens have a greater chance than boys do of eventually becoming alcoholics. Sexual encounters among binge drinkers, with risks of pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and AIDS exposure, as well as date rape and other violence, can and do occur more often while students are consuming large amounts of alcohol by binge drinking. According to a study published in the Journal of American College Health by Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health, between 1993 and 2001, all-female colleges saw a 125% increase in frequent binge drinking.

Among women who drank, there was a 150% increase in "unplanned" sexual activities, date rape and sexual assault. Stanford University student counselors have observed an increase in women who had "regretted sex" while drunk. As to why youngsters and young adults, male and female, binge drink (and while older adults may participate in binge drinking, an internet search did not return much information on anything other than teenage and college-age binge drinkers), some researchers attribute the practice to youngsters desiring a sense of belonging among peers who also drink, some desire a feeling of inhibition alcohol may provide when socially ill at ease, or a means of escape from dysfunctional family situations. Some are starving for attention. Many are attempting to cope with changes in living arrangements during the early adult years. Some are thrill seekers who are bored and looking for kicks.

One college woman, in a recent TIME Magazine article stated, ÒTo be able to drink like a guy is kind of a badge of honor. For me, it's a feminism thing." Through the 1990Õs, women have statistically not engaged in as much risky behavior as men. However, that is fast changing. Today, young women drink as dangerously as, if not more so than male classmates. Women at same-sex colleges drink less than those on coed campuses, and both populations drink less than males. But these women are definitely putting themselves at greater risk according to the JACH study noted above. Recent research shows that liquor affects women's bodies more quickly, also women tend to get drunk more quickly than men because women's bodies have a higher ratio of fat to water and so alcohol is less diluted when it enters the bloodstream. They also have lower levels of an enzyme that helps break down alcohol. Women tend to develop liver disease 10 to 15 years earlier than men, even if women consume only a fraction of the daily alcohol that men do.

RESOURCES:

1. "Alcohol: Problems and Solutions" Prof. David J. Hanson, Ph.D. Sociology Department, State University of New York http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol-info/BingeDrinking/BingeDrinking.html

2. National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. http://www.ncadd.org/facts/fyibinge.html

3. Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/publications/ncadi/primer/binge.htm

4. Reasons to Drink and Not to Drink: Altering Trajectories of Drinking through an Alcohol Misuse Prevention Program; Personality and Social Psychology Review , Vol. 2, No. 1 Contributors: Jennifer L. Maggs - author 1998 http://www.questia.com/PageManagerHTMLMediator.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=76972902

5. The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do Contributors: Lynn Ponton E. - author Publisher: Basic Books Publication Date: 1997 http://www.questia.com/PageManagerHTMLMediator.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=6980018http://www.questia.com/PageManagerHTMLMediator.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=6980018

6. TIME MAGAZINE. Women and Drinking. Women On a Binge. Web site. 2002. http://www.time.com/time/2002/wdrinking/story.html 7. Secondary Effects of Binge Drinking on College Campuses http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs/effects.htm