Binge Drinking in College Students

Who cares? They don’t.

I have read this article a thousand times. You know the headlines, College Binge Drinking Kills, Binge Drinking: An Epidemic. This video is the latest installment in the Binge Drinking series that frightens parents and entices students.

“The university finds the video disappointing because it does not portray the behavior of a majority of our students,” school spokesman Mark Miller told KDVR. But the reality is that the rates of drinking at colleges have remained pretty constant.

I'm sure you've seen the stats of deaths and sexual assaults related to binge drinking, if not you can find a few here. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/special-populations-co-occurring-disorders/college-drinking.

The fact is, regardless of the college campus you go to, there will be drinking. Students who report binge drinking also report being happier than their non-binge drinking peers. Drinking has become a part of the college lifestyle that students look forward to. The reasons vary from helping young students alleviate their social anxiety, helping them grow close friendships, and finding romance.

There’s a lot of focus on addiction, and the ways in which alcohol destroys lives and destroys families, and in the college-drinking world in particular, there are these long lists of all its harms. That’s important because some bad things do happen, but what past researchers have missed is why it’s fun and this is what college students see.

If people are serious about understanding binge drinking, and what’s behind it and what to do about it, they need to understand what college kids are getting out of drinking. As a college student, I have never met a person who said, “Oh yeah I read this great article the other day on the detrimental effects of binge drinking and so I quit. No more alcohol for me.” That just doesn’t happen.

The effectiveness of public health strategies to reduce college binge drinking and underage alcohol use are becoming a large area of study. http://www.alcoholpolicymd.com/alcohol_and_health/study_college.htm

We keep throwing money at these media campaigns, and research studies that aren’t having in effect on the problem. Before the next big study the strategy needs to be rethought or stop wasting your money. College students are drinking and it seems there is nothing you can do about it.