Binge drinking Disorder

Binge drinking is when you drink enough alcohol to bring your blood-alcohol content up to the legal limit for driving. That works out to about five alcoholic drinks for men or four for women in less than 2 hours. A drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of liquor.

Most American adults drink alcohol at least occasionally, but about 1 in 4 knock back several drinks in a short period of time at least once a year. About 1 in 6 American adults say they regularly binge drink, sometimes several times a month. They typically have about seven drinks on these binges.

Adults under 35 are more likely to do this than other age groups, and men are twice as likely as women. People who make more than $75,000 a year and are more educated are most likely to binge drink. Learn more about alcohol abuse vs dependence.