College is seen as a rite of passage. It’s the time where a young adult can break free from the restraints of their parents and figure out what kind of person they are on their own. And sometimes that person is the one that wants to drink heavily and do beer bongs. This is when school life can suffer and lead to dropping out. It takes more than the drinking age of 21 to curb college binge drinking. It has to be a personal choice.
Yet, worse than the threat of having to drop out, is that this binge drinking can lead to a big problem, alcoholism. And this alcoholism can get worse and manifest itself into other drug abuse or simply just the need for addiction treatment.
Binge drinking used to mean drinking heavily over several days. Now there is a more defined definition. Binge drinking is when a man drinks five or more alcoholic drinks in one day and for women it’s four or more drinks in a row. This definition is over the period of the past two weeks. Heavy binge drinking is defined as doing this at least three times in the last two weeks. And in college, this can be something that happens on a nightly basis.
Besides a hangover, binge drinking can result in alcohol poisoning. Binge drinking can turn into alcoholism and could lead for a need of dual diagnosis treatment.
Binge drinking has become a way of life for many people on many college campuses. And the dangers are easily avoidable. If you think you are binge drinking, assess why you think you are and figure out if it is affecting your life negatively. The binge drinking you do in college could end up having a negative effect on your entire life. The sooner you get help, the better.
