Student drinking

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It’s hard to deny that for many students, drinking is a big part of the school experience. But when does it cross the line into an unhealthy habit? It’s difficult to find a clear divide between social, acceptable drinking and unhealthy, problematic drinking. So on campus experts want students to watch for warning signs.

According to Canada’s low risk drinking guidelines, women should have no more than 2 drinks a day and 10 drinks a week and men should have no more than 3 a day and 15a week.

But the pressure and temptation that comes with living away from home can be too much for students to ignore.

It’s impossible to pinpoint a number of drinks when a students’ habits change from social to scary. Brock University’s manager of off campus living, Curtis Gadula, says the issue is individual and safety has to be a top consideration. “If a student ever gets to the point where they’re not remembering how they got home or they’re blacking out, that means anything could have happened at that time.”

Of course, some students choose to abstain entirely. For others, just a couple drinks over the limit can become a negative force in their lives. “Is it starting to affect your studies? Is it affecting your family life, is it affecting your relationships with your friends, is it affecting some of your mood swings? those are the simple, basic things that if they really start to focus on some of those things, it tends to get them moving in the right direction.” Curtis Gadula hopes students who over indulge, are able to seek help and learn to moderate themselves so they can put their education first.