Alcohol abuse, on other hand, is not an uncontrollable urge, but uncontrollability of abuser once s/he obtains alcohol.

An alcoholic abuser may have problems keeping up with daily responsibilities, such as going to work or adhering to familial needs. He or she may also get in drunk-driving accidents, or develop medical conditions due to their alcoholic consumption.

Binge drinking, for example, is a method of abusing alcohol, but not everyone who binge drinks would be considered an alcoholic, by definition.

Try asking yourself following questions to assess whether you believe that you could have a problematic alcohol related issue. The first question relates to how others view you.

* Question 1: Has anyone ever brought issue up, that your drinking is a problem? The next three deal with personal reflection.

* Question 2: Have you ever felt guilty about your drinking?

* Question 3: Have you ever thought that drinking got in your way or that you should cut down?

Of course reasons for binge drinking are manifold. Maybe you work in a stressful, highly pressurised environment and need to let off steam when you can. Maybe you’re young, out with all your friends, with a lot of energy to burn and a need to drink and show off. Perhaps you’re unemployed, have just been dumped or are just generally depressed and you have frustrations to vent, sorrows to immolate. Perhaps you are simply shy and feel more comfortable in society with a little “dutch courage”. Whatever, it is a simple fact that alcohol is addictive. When one drinks it initially creates a kind of inner hubris. We feel better about ourselves and want to feel better still. This feeling must be fuelled. The more one drinks more and faster one wants to drink. To make matters worse, we live in a culture which actively encourages this. People don’t go out to enjoy a quiet drink. People go out to get pissed.

A recent government report revealed some alarming figures. The study by Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit stated that Britain’s binge drinking trend costs nation £20 billion a year. 17 million working days are lost to hangovers and alcohol related illnesses caused by binge drinking, annual cost to employers being estimated at £6.4 billion. The cost to NHS is thought to be in region of £1.7 billion. Around 40% of A&E admissions are alcohol related. Between midnight and 5AM that figure rises to 70%. Every year around 150,000 people find themselves in hospital as a result of accidents or illnesses caused by alcohol misuse. In addition there are 22,000 premature deaths per year directly attributable to alcohol. Billions of pounds are spent cleaning up alcohol related crime and social problems. In this country there are no less than 1.2 million incidents of alcohol related violence a year. 1.3 million children are affected by parents with drink problems and demographic for young binge drinkers, once confined to late teens now often runs from 16 to 24.

Sobering statistics – and yet authors of this report have said that even these figures may be a conservative estimate.

So much for damage alcohol does to economy. What about personal cost? How could binge drinking directly affect you?