Rou

Binge.

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

It’s a peeve of mine that goes back to college. Somewhere, probably a long time ago, decided that drinking alcohol was inherently immoral because it reduced inhibitions of people. My freshman year of college, my school came under the crosshairs of an organization that ascribed to this mindset. They did studies and tried out anti-drinking programs. They put out propaganda and made efforts to curtail the bars and stores in the area that catered to the large drinking population of students.

One of their little focus points was the concept of binge drinking. As they defined it, binge drinking was anytime a single person consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in the course of one evening.

That has never sat well with me. Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy drinking. Not just a little, but a lot. If I’m not working the next morning, there is a good chance I’ll toss back a few drinks easy. But very rarely do I actually get stupefying piss-drunk. Besides, I don't think it can possibly count as binging when I do it regularly.

There are a number of reasons I don’t buy that definition. First off, it’s clinically inaccurate. Five drinks in a night? Shit, even for amateur drinkers, that’s not difficult. All you have to do is examine the length of time involved. Just between 6pm and midnight, you’ve got less than one drink an hour. That’s not even enough to get a buzz, much less maintain one. But you're still a 'binge' drinker according to this defintion.

Clinically, binge drinking is defined as the following:

A period of continuing intoxication lasting at least two days during which time the binger neglects usual life activities (work, family, etc.)

Now, one of those definitions is dramatically more serious than the other. One of them I would consider potentially worrisome. The other I would view as a good time. Ok, I lied. I view both of them as a good time, but I can respect the view that multi-day benders could be viewed as symptomatic of a larger problem.

So, what possesses people to define binge drinking by the five drink rule? Morality police. I know, I know. You’ve read my complaints on them from the moment I started posting on this site. But there is no other excuse. It’s an asinine standard that doesn’t correctly identify the problem, or the abuse. What it really does is allow you to widen the number of ‘binge drinkers’ in any given survey sample. And people, who don’t think about this moronic reasoning, will assume there is a big problem with that sample’s drinking habits.

By reducing the standards for binge drinking to that level you don’t help identify or help the problem drinkers. You light torches and grab pitchforks looking for a witch hunt. You push so many people into the problem drinking category, that you can classify them as a problem and try to enforce your morality upon them with legislation and social stigma.

Fuck 'em. Raise your pints and give them the finger. God damn puritians.