I don’t think you should limit this discussion to “colleges”. People between the ages of 18 and 25 (or so) are drinking a lot whether they’re in college or not.
I don’t think its the stress of college or the accessibility of it on campuses. It’s not peer pressure. It’s that you’re finally out of the house, hanging out with people your age that can buy (legally often – 18 yr olds know 21 year olds), and that drinking is – big surprise coming to some of you --FUN for some of us.
I know what you’re thinking . . .“what’s fun about waking up hungover. throwing up in a toilet. making a fool out of yourself.” Well, none of that is fun. But also, drinking means getting loopy, getting silly, socializing, bonding, talking to strangers, going to different parties/bars/places. Drinking is fun (and, some of us love the taste), and before you really know how to control it, you do a lot more of it than you probably should because it is fun. You can also recover from its effects more easily when you’re young and the excesses of it aren’t as severe as they are when you have real responsibilities (jobs, cars, houses, wives, kids).
And that’s true on college campuses, off college campuses, in the US, in Europe, now, in the past, and in the future.
So yes, you got some people that clearly have problems with it in college. But you know what – they’re going to abuse alcohol whether you educate them, lock them up, or ban alcohol from campuses. There are just people with alcohol problems. Some are on college campuses. Some aren’t.
Budding alcoholics - is a term for those who can not control their drinking post-college. And it was in my opinion that they start their trends in College.
Sure, what better place for it? You’re in a place where drinking is encouraged and where alcohol is readily available in a culture that encourages, if not outright endorses, binge drinking in college students.
A student at my alma mater recently fell out of an open window and was hurt (or killed, I’m not sure which). I believe he had been drinking.
My group of friends in college (I graduated three years ago) would host parties every five or six weeks. There would be MASSIVE amounts of alcohol with most everyone getting very drunk. We’d go to the bars every other weekend or so and I’d get tipsy, but rarely drunk (driving home or not feeling safe around strangers).
Since I left school, though, I’ve not been drunk more than five or six times. I do still drink, but in extreme moderation. Since Ardred works for a liquor store, we get deep discounts, so we have quite a bar, but it sits there gathering dust for the most part.
There are still a few of my friends who are the “Wed-Sun” drinkers (Thursday is starting your weekend LATE) but as jobs become more demanding and social obligations increase, there is far less binge drinking. Maturity does that, I guess.
I guess just because there is binge drinking in college (or the college age group) it doesn’t necessarily lead to alcoholism in later life. It is dangerous and stupid, but so are a lot of things young people tend to do.
My first instinct would be to say that these deaths are clearing out the gene pool, but that wouldn’t be fair to these kids who lost their lives. I and my friends did a lot of things that should have gotten us hurt or killed and we were just lucky never to have had to face that kind of tragedy.
I go to university in Glasgow, and quite enjoy getting drunk on a regular basis. Do I think that this behavior will last beyond my university years? NO. Drinking is just part of the social life. It’s not peer pressure that makes me drink, or made me start drinking.
This is definately true of Glasgow Uni (and just about any uni in the UK, I would presume). In fact, I probably am one of these “out of control” students. I go out at least 2 nights/week, and usually about 4 times.
Do you think that we don’t know that alcohol is bad for us? I’m in no way ignorant of the side effects and possible long term consequences - that still isn’t going to stop me from going out and drinking. Like I said, I don’t plan on continuing this behavior post-university. But, this is the time of my life when I can act like this. I don’t have classes before 12 ever, and I get my work in on time. So, what exactly is the problem?
I really don’t see the high alcohol consumption level as a problem that needs to be dealt with and eradicated. It’s part of university (or, rather, as some previous posters mention, being young (18-25)) and will always be so. Most of us turn out ok. Those who don’t, I think would have turned out as alcoholics regardless of whether they attended uni or not. The arguments presented remind me an awful lot of cannabis being a gateway to harder drugs type of argument. but, lets not even go down that path…
There is a good reason that most people turn a blind eye toward it, They don’t really care, IMHO. There is the surface facade of the soccer mom “Won’t somebody think of the kids”, that is politicaly correct. But most people I have talked to about it just pretend to say things like that to avoid arguments against the loud moral minorty on the subject of kids drinking. It’s not that big a deal. Everybody knows dozens and dozens of examples of people who spend 4 years drunk, then graduated and became a productive member of society. Yeah there are people who hurt themselves or die because of alchohol consumption, and it’s a tradgedy, but it’s not epidemic in most people eyes. It’s a part of life and choices, and there are a lot of choices that may end in death.
I was a huge drinker in college, and for the record I probably still drink more than 98% of Americans my age(30). But I don’t get drunk except or rare occasions anymore, for several reasons
I have greater responsiblity, either I have a job that is important, or I am looking for a job an cannot miss an oportunity by being hungover the next morning. In college I usually only had some class i wouldn’t bother to go to if I was feeling great.
I now live in a house and have a bad back. In college getting wasted and crashing on someones couch was a very common occurance, but now I feel an urgent need to get back to my bed, which means I must allow for driving home.
Drinking + age kicks your ass. When I was 14-24 I thought I knew what a hangover was. We would all say how bad we felt, then go play 4 hours of basketball. But when I turned 25 I found out what a hangover really was. 20 hours of feeling like a corpse having a bad day, and the inability of function in any capacity.
And I have a feeling that it the way it goes with 99% of heavy college drinkers, they grow old with out any associated problems.
The main reasons I drank a lot in college, and still drink today. I enjoy it. Some of most memorable, fun nights I have had in my life were because I was drunk and didn’t bother acknowldgeing my usual hangups, and shut of the portion of my brain that makes me depressed most of the time. Call it alcholism, call it self-medication, call it moral depravity if you want. I don’t regret my heavy drinking days at all, and most of my true friends I have today I found in that world.
