Doctor Ann

Nerd - Sick

Binge drinking is either ‘drinking enough alcohol at one occasion/time/session so that you actually get drunk/intoxicated’

People under the age of 18 would probably reach this state after 3 to 4 units because for adults what makes you a binge drinker ‘having eight or more units if you are a adult man, or six or more units if you are an adult woman on at least one day in the week’.

So if your mum and dad are doing that imagine how much less it needs to get you ‘off the wall’.
One unit = half a pint of ordinary beer = a small glass of wine = 2/3 of a bottle of alcopops = 1 pub measure of spirits.
One in three men and one in four women binge drink, though it appears that binge drinking is now increasing more rapidly in women than men.

The wanted results of binge drinking;

• Getting off your face
• Getting pissed as a newt
• Getting blinder than everyone else
• Being able to forget everything

The unwanted results of binge drinking include:

•	Accidents and death – alcohol is a factor in about one in three of all accidental deaths whether you walk off the top of a ten story car park or the driver of the car that your hit by has had ‘one too many’. Between midnight and early morning 3 out 4 accident and emergency department admission are because of using alcohol.
•	Violence – booze is responsible for just about half of all crimes involving loosing your rage and beating people up.
•	Unsafe sex – after drinking alcohol one is seven had unsafe sex (not using a condom); one in five had sex which they later wished they hadn’t had ; one in ten were unable to remember whether they had sex or not! Nearly half agreed that they were more likely to have sex with someone that they didn’t really fancy (both ‘yugh’ and ‘risky’!).
•	Brain damage – Your brain is particularly sensitive to the effects of alcohol when you are young so that using alcohol during adolescence can permanently damage your memory.
•	You get gross – because alcohol is full of calories you fat, obese, gross, overweight and a beer belly.

So think about it whilst you still can!