Binge Drinking

I just had what I'd call a reality check. Apparently, sometime back...while I was not looking, someone went ahead and redefined excessive drinking. My perception of binge drinking has always been, that of drinking oneself to a stupor. Just a few days ago, I came across a website that actually asserts that binge drinking starts after the 5th drink per occasional session. Now, that does not sound right...at least not to me! I would describe myself as a social drinker, one who catches a pint occasionally with friends. Occasionally here being about once in 2 months especially while watching football. If I happen to watch football without company, it is unlikely that I'd drink, unless I am watching the game from a pub. Football games last about 4 hours on average, meaning that the likelihood of having more than 5 drinks per game cannot be ruled out. At a rate of 1 drink every 45 min for the first 3 hours and then 1 drink per hour after that, the threshold is realized in a hurry and anything beyond drink # 5 would qualify as a binge. Am I trying to justify my bad drinking habits per chance (if they are bad at all)? I don't know...but I guess most people happen to fall in my bracket and are at a risk of slumping into alcoholism. That actually sounds far fetched to me, but is directly off the website that is designed to help alcoholics, therefore being authorities in that area, I believe those who post stuff there know what they are on about. Some scary statistics they share too...that is, if you fear addiction in any form, color or shape. Anyway, it seems like most people go beyond the safe limit of drink every time they go out for a drink. There is an alternative way of looking at binge drinking and that seems to be...drinking to get drunk. Drinking is supposed to be a leisurely activity and if the intention is to get a high, then that borders on the dangerous (regardless of whether you actually succeed in drinking to get drunk!). On critical analysis, it all appears to be a quibbling with semantics, though bottom line, excessive liquor has never done anyone any good. I think I may have to check myself out and make sure that whenever I drink, I keep to a maximum of 5 drinks, or at least "keep my intentions pure". One thing that seems not clear though is the exact definition of "a drink". For women, the limit is one less than for men, though in my opinion, body to mass ratio should be a more sensible criterion for setting limits rather than setting blanket limits.