I used to roll my eyes and/or laugh at these guidelines but here they are:
Binge Drinking:
NIAAA defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL. This typically occurs after 4 drinks for women and 5 drinks for men—in about 2 hours.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which conducts the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), defines binge drinking as drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks on the same occasion on at least 1 day in the past 30 days.
Heavy Drinking:
SAMHSA defines heavy drinking as drinking 5 or more drinks on the same occasion on each of 5 or more days in the past 30 days.
I have a lot of time between alcohol and myself and now these guidelines make total sense to me. Most people I know drink way less than these guidelines. I drank way more.
"Heavy drinking," even going those guidelines is not good for your health.
Honestly, anyone who drinks more than two drinks a day drinks too much.
I don't think there's a single person on this forum who didn't once dream of learning how to moderate their drinking. I sure did. I tried for years but I kept failing over and over by drinking more than I had planned and more often than I planned.
But looking back, I wasn't even fooling myself. When I tried to moderate I was just counting the days until I could let loose and drink how I wanted. I was never able to moderate my drinking.
I stopped when the negatives became so wildly apparent that I couldn't ignore them anymore. I drank to the point where my hands were shaky in the morning and I was hungover all the time, every day until I took my first drink at 5 pm to help with the headache.