Campus Life
Reasons why students drink:
Information from six health needs assessments and a health forum conducted at UCC between 1992 and 1997 revealed that alcohol use among first year students was mentioned frequently as a means for coping with college stress.
In another survey performed across Canadian campuses in 1998, students reported that they drank the most when the reason was to:
- get drunk (8.9 drinks)
- celebrate or party (5.7 drinks)
- forget their problems (5.5 drinks)
- feel good (5.4 drinks)
Drinking Patterns:
Most people drink a moderate amount of alcohol to feel relaxed and a consistent pattern of low to moderate drinking provides partial protection against heart disease for middle-aged or older people. These benefits are attainable with the consumption of one to two standard drinks a day for men and less than one standard drink a day for women.
However, drinking patterns among students appear to exceed these beneficial levels of consumption. Data from the UCC survey reveals that students admitted to binge drinking, which can be defined as the consumption of five or more drinks at one time for men, and three or more drinks for women. Students also stated that they were drinking and driving, being a passenger with a drunk driver and missing many morning classes due to "hangovers". A hangover is actually a sign of alcohol withdrawal which may begin 8-12 hours after drinking and include symptoms such as headaches, shakiness, nausea, vomiting, tremors, hallucinations and convulsions. Heavy drinking patterns can lead to alcohol dependence. One sign of alcohol dependence is tolerance, when a person needs increasing quantities of alcohol to obtain the same effect. Another sign is blackouts, or periods of memory loss, when a conscious and functioning person can't recall events that happened while drinking. Feelings of anxiety or panic if alcohol isn't available may be another sign of alcohol dependence.