The Mislabeling of Binge Drinking

Mitchell Johnson
With a new school year comes a renewal of collegiate stereotypes: all-night cram
sessions, welcome week activities and of course, binge drinking.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines binge
drinking differently based on gender: for women it is the consumption of about four
drinks in two hours, for men it is about five drinks in two hours. Heavy or at-risk
drinking for a man is four or more drinks in a single day, or fourteen drinks a week; for a
woman, three or more in a single day or seven per week.
These facts take on an even bigger meaning when coupled with the statistic that more
than four out of five college students drink alcohol, and half of these students binge
drink.
When you take into consideration there are approximately 19.7 million college students
in the U.S., that is almost eight million students binge drinking.
Statistics aside, the true nature of binge drinking is more of an attitude than a defined
number drinks, at least according to Winona State graduate student Benjamin Barclay.
Ben graduated from Luther College in Iowa in 2001, and he says he frequently has three
or four glasses of wine or beer at dinner, and he doesnt consider himself a binge
drinker.
When I was an undergraduate, I saw binge drinking as more of a mindset, says Barclay,
I saw it as an attitude toward a night of drinking that consists of I am going out, and I
am getting hammered.
Nicholas Johnson, a senior at Winona State, agrees with Barclay, saying its true there are
the people out there who take beer bongs of straight hard liquor, but that he would
never dream of doing something so reckless.
The interesting thing is that Johnson admits he would be considered an excessive drinker,
saying he probably has four or five drinks three or four nights out of the week. The
problems arise when drinking begins to severely detract from a persons day-to-day life.
This being said, there are spectrums of the binge drinking scale. A student who wished to
remain anonymous talks of a party he attended his sophomore year during which he saw
someone guzzle an entire liter of Captain Morgan in about a minute. Later on in the night
the student saw the binger passed-out outside, with his friends attempting to carry him
home.

The short-term effects of binge drinking are numerous for college students, the most
common side effect being a blackout, or an interval of time for which the intoxicated
person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events (NIAAA). A study of
772 college students found them more likely participate in risky behaviors like
vandalism, unprotected sex, and driving. (NIAAA).
Ultimately, the stereotype of college as a haven for binge drinking is not entirely off
basethe statistics prove it is a problem. What may be off base is the scale used to
determine status as a binge-drinker.
Instead of scale wholly determined by number of drinks, a new measurement taking into
account individual characteristics of a person, and whether the binge-drinker is still
meeting his or her responsibilities in their daily lives.
So, as this new semester begins, avoid being a stereotype. Have fun, but always do so
responsibly.