Teenagers and binge drinking, it's more common than you think.

There are some people that may not be aware of what constitutes binge drinking.

For the most part, when an individual is drinking alcohol in order to get drunk, they are partaking in binge drinking. Strictly defined, binge drinking for males is five or more drinks in a short time frame, or four drinks for females.

By having a set definition of what qualifies as binge drinking, we are able to get more accurate statistics when it comes to teenagers and this particular type of activity.

There are only a few places that allow teenagers to drink. These are military basis, such as Fort Bliss in Texas. This military institution is right on the border of Mexico. Army officials found out that there were a number of soldiers going down to Mexico in order to take part in binge drinking activities.

In order to limit the number of soldiers that went to Mexico, where the drinking age is 18, the rules on the military base were changed. This was able to be accomplished because the base is federally operated. The drinking age was lowered to 18, just on the base.

However, teenage drinking is in now way isolated to military bases. One of the most common dangers of binge drinking is that it actually works to predispose the teenagers and individuals that binge drink to develop an addiction to alcohol.

Binge drinking is also the type of drinking behavior that most immediately endangers the individuals and those around the person that is binge drinking, regardless of whether or not they are drinking as well.

These are some of the statistics from 2005 which questions teenagers in different grades about there binge drinking habits within the last two weeks, prior to the survey questions being posed to the teenagers.

Eighth graders had a response of 10.5% when asked if they had been binge drinking at any point in time during the previous two weeks. To the same question, 21% of tenth graders admitted the same thing.

When twelfth graders were asked about the issue, 28% admitted that they had done some type of binge drinking in just those last two weeks. In the same year, the same groups of students were asked if they had gotten drunk. 14% of eighth graders said they had been drunk within the last year, as compared to 34.2% of tenth graders and 47.7% of twelfth graders.

These statistics help to show that teenagers start at a fairly early age when it comes to binge drinking. Getting drunk is something that many teenagers have experienced, and this is very serious because of the threat that it presents to the students, especially over the long haul.

As these teenagers get older, if they do not get their alcohol use under control, which many may mistakenly believe they already do, they can have highly detrimental setbacks in their life as a result.

Most teenagers do not start thinking about these long term issues and problems, and have trouble looking past the current moment.

By further educating parents and their teenage children, we can hope to cause a decline in the amount of teenagers that binge drink or drink to excess.