Is Binge Drinking Really An Epidemic?

Going on a binge or a ‘bender' used to mean spending anywhere from two or three days to the same number of weeks doing basically nothing but drinking - no work, no social life, no contact with friends or family. The person would disappear, hole up in a motel for days on end, with no one knowing where they were and only those with whom they had intimate relationships aware of what they were doing. But ‘binge' has now been redefined and, although there's no question that alcohol abuse is a problem, the redefinition of this term is making the situation look far worse than it is.

The new ‘binge' is now defined as having five or more drinks in one sitting for a male, and four for a female. Which translates into, basically, every guy, or girl, who's sitting around the TV watching the pre-game hoopla for the Rose Bowl and then watching the game, sticking around for a barbeque and having five beers over a period of four hours or so is ‘on a binge.' And they are now included in the statistics many organizations publish regarding the number of people in need of alcohol rehab or some other form of treatment.

 

So, when does someone really need alcohol rehab?

 

• When they get to the point of ‘binge drinking', the new definition, several nights a week not just on isolated occasions.
• When they really do go on binges - the old definition.
• When they drink at times when it's inappropriate and can't seem to control it - in other words: when drinking means more to them than handling themselves correctly in a social situation.
• When they turn to alcohol every time they get a little stressed.
• When they go through Jekyll and Hyde personality changes, but won't stop drinking despite the effects they create.
• When they become destructive in any way, towards themselves or others.
• When they drink first thing in the morning.

 

Alcohol abuse is definitely a problem with millions of Americans. But is binge drinking an epidemic? Truthfully, we don't really know: When you change the definition of the word and skew the statistics, you never really know the truth.

But one thing is certain - there are millions of Americans with very obvious alcohol abuse problems. You know it and, even though they may deny it, so do they. You don't need to know if they fall into a statistical category. You don't need to count how many drinks they had. Even those who have built up such a tolerance to alcohol that they seem to be able to drink forever without getting drunk usually have at least one person in their life who knows the truth.

All that really matters is that the person gets the help he or she needs. And if everyone who knows someone that needs to quit drinking gets them into an addiction treatment center, alcohol abuse would no longer be a big problem - no matter what the statistics say.