Navigation For Parents Subpages Teenage Attitudes to Alcohol Intoxication Teenage Attitudes to Alcohol Intoxication What to do when your teen thinks drinking to get drunk is normal ' Binge drinking ' is also known as 'drinking to get drunk'. Sometimes people try to define binge drinking by saying that it means 'someone drinking a particular number of drinks', usually more than recommended in the healthy drinking guidelines . However, 'binge drinking' isn't about a number of drinks, it's about intent, i.e., specifically going out drinking to "get wasted". You are more likely to reach dangerous levels of intoxication, be less capable of looking after yourself and more likely to take dangerous risks. Binge drinking receives a great deal of media attention and it is therefore no surprise that our teenagers believe that is the norm. There is no denying that there are many young people who drink in a risky way, but it is also important to try to remember that there are many teenagers who are trying their best to keep themselves and their friends as safe as possible. Australian research shows that in 2010 around 19% of 16-17 year olds drank in a risky or high risk way, monthly. Let's flip that around and remember that this means that 81% don't! There is the perception that nowadays binge drinking has become pretty much the norm for teenagers. Binge drinking is dangerous and even if there is only the minority who are doing it, they are still loud, obvious