What Is Binge Drinking?
What Is Binge Drinking?
Simply put, binge drinking is drinking to get drunk - a
self-destructive and unrestrained drinking bout.
During the drinking binge the heavily intoxicated drinker
ignores responsibilities, squanders money, and engages in all
manner of harmful behaviours that may well bring them into
contact with the police or emergency services.
Binge drinking is now a problem in many western countries, even
though individual countries have different tolerance levels of
binge drinkers.
In the United States, binge drinking is the consuming of four or
more drinks by a woman, or five or more drinks by a man on an
occasion.
In the United Kingdom, binge drinking is commonly defined as
consuming 11 or more drinks on an occasion. This is more than
double what is considered binge drinking in the USA - yet binge
drinking in the United Kingdom is now so serious; the British
Government is about to bring in measures to tackle the problem.
What's the problem?
Binge drinking is irresponsible; heavy drinking that often comes
under the disguise of fun and games. Binge drinking is terribly
dangerous to the drinker and to the people around them.
Risks to the binge drinker include: