Topic > Alcohol and the Causes of Student Alcohol Abuse

Causes of Student Alcohol Abuse We've all heard it before: "Too much of anything is bad for you." The amount of alcoholism occurring on American college campuses today demonstrates that college students fail to heed this warning. Binge drinking, or drinking with the purpose of getting drunk, harms both drinkers and non-drinkers alike. As today's college students come perilously close to being swept away by the sea of ​​papers, exams, jobs and interviews, they are using binge eating as a lifeboat that allows them to escape the stress. It allows them to forget their worries, fit in with the crowd, and live on the edge in a busy world that normally leaves no time for such activities. Teetering on the brink of adulthood, but still trapped in childhood, makes the decision about drinking difficult for many college students. The desire to distance ourselves from our usual life due to social regulations and conformity, psychological and emotional problems, and the stress of everyday life causes college binge eating. The need to conform to social norms established by peers leads to college binge eating. Over the years, drinking has become a popular pastime for college students. A study conducted by Dr. Katherine C. Lyall of the University of Wisconsin defined binge eating as "five or more drinks in a row one or more times during a two-week period for men, and four or more drinks in a row one or more times in the same period for women." Lyall's study, in which 145 universities in 40 states participated, found that 84 percent of all students drank during the school year. It was also found that 44% of all students were binge drinkers and 19% had binged three or more times in a two-week period (Lyall). Students feel the need to drink to fit in with the spirit... in the center of the paper... as well as those around them. Social norms, psychological and emotional problems, and stress all contribute to binge drinking. These factors, however, should not be excuses. Today's college students are able to find a legal and safe lifeboat that prevents them from being sucked under the waves of discouraging college pressures. Works Cited Addeo, Edmond G., and Jovita Reichling. Why our children drink. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1975. Hamilton, Cheryl. Communicate to get results. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1997.Lyall, Katherine C., PhD. “Binge Drinking on American College Campuses.” August 1995. October 14, 1998. (available online). http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/RWJ_S.htmNorth, Robert and Richard Orange, Jr. Teenage Drinking. New York: Collier Books, 1980.Rouse, Ewing. Drink. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1978.