5% is one out of twenty people. That's not very rare, when you consider these things tend to have a lopsided distribution. You have to be careful with statistic

5% is one out of twenty people. That's not very rare, when you consider these things tend to have a lopsided distribution. You have to be careful with statistics, because in our minds numbers like 5-17% are minuscule, but the reality is that's not uncommon. If you were to consider this drinking pattern a disease (we'll call it "borderline alcohol abuse"), it would be considered "very common", since there are over 3 million cases (16 million +) > Your binge frequency is 4 times higher than that of the CDC report I think you're exaggerating a bit. I present a wide range and you're focusing on the highest end of it. The low end would be much more reasonable, though not completely healthy. > But people who admitted to drinking a case of beer a week were very rare. That's kinda the point. People aren't admitting it or being realistic with how much they drink (I'd be willing to bet these statistics are low also). A guy in the UK started counting and was over 100 units (~30-50 beers). Nobody thought he was an alcoholic at all. It's just a bit of fun social drinking. Of course you're gonna go out with boys after your beer league hockey game (where you had 1-3 beers in the locker room), later in the week there's trivia, and you have to go to Mark's party. Oh, and you like to have a beer or two with the game (forgetting you frequently grab 3). After a stressful day of work you have a drink or two, so what? In my experience, this kind of behavior is totally normalized; I'm not the first person to notice.