Are you a binge drinker, too?

It's official, I'm a binge-drinker according to Alcohol Concern. I feel a bit cheated since I'm not a teenager (I'm 34), or a regular party-goer (going to restaurants and friends' houses are a greater feature of my life) and I don't throw up on street corners. In fact, I haven't been sick in years and I very rarely get drunk. Apparently, my downfall is the fact that I'm a woman who sometimes - OK, often - consumes four or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting (men are allowed five).

It's official, I'm a binge-drinker according to Alcohol Concern. I feel a bit cheated since I'm not a teenager (I'm 34), or a regular party-goer (going to restaurants and friends' houses are a greater feature of my life) and I don't throw up on street corners. In fact, I haven't been sick in years and I very rarely get drunk. Apparently, my downfall is the fact that I'm a woman who sometimes - OK, often - consumes four or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting (men are allowed five).

"There are many people like you who wouldn't consider themselves binge-drinkers," the spokeswoman for Alcohol Concern informs me, sympathetically. "But it's not just about the 15-year-olds we're shown, falling about with their knickers on show."

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Government guidelines on alcohol consumption used to be weekly: 14 units for women, 21 for men. The shift to daily recommendations - between two and three for women and three and four for men, with at least two sober days a week - was prompted precisely because of the growth in binge-drinking. The trend is for people to save their units up for the weekend, and, while 16-24 year-olds have had the most publicity (and become the most "at-risk" group), older people are not immune from both short- and long-term dangers. We've simply swapped our reckless teenage parties for cocktail receptions and our beer-soaked nights for dinner-parties where the pinot noir flows.

"It used to be that drinking to get drunk was a rite of passage," says the spokeswoman for Alcohol Concern. "It's what you did at 17, then you'd get married in your early twenties, have kids in your late twenties and game over. But now, research shows that people start younger, are drinking more and are settling down later. So we're putting a much bigger strain on our bodies in the longer term."

COUNTING UNITS

It doesn't help that we're kidding ourselves when it comes to unit counting, according to Alcohol Focus, a voluntary organisation that deals with alcohol issues in Scotland. "People still think of a glass of wine as one unit, despite more and more bars serving 250ml glasses. That's a third of a bottle, and three units," explains its spokeswoman, Gillian Bell.

Modern wines are also more alcoholic. When units were first calculated, wine was around eight or nine per cent alcohol by volume. My partner and I tucked into a Chilean merlot the other day that was a staggering 14.5 per cent and felt more like a tranquilliser than a tipple. Another surprise for many people is that some alcopops are one-and-a-half units per serving. What's more, research shows that spirits poured at home are likely to be twice as large as those served in pubs.

Not everyone agrees that four G&Ts (or two at home) in an evening is a problem, though. Two recent publications define binge-drinking as 10 or more drinks in one session or, alternatively, drinking more than half the recommended number of units for a week in one session (10 for men and seven for women). And Dr Massimo Riccio, a consultant psychiatrist at The Priory clinic, says that it's futile to assess problem drinking using units.

WHAT MAKES A PROBLEM DRINKER?

Problem drinking, Dr Riccio believes, is less associated with alcohol volume than behaviour. "For one person, four glasses of wine makes for a merry evening, and for another, it could be the makings of an addiction."

In fact, some people can drink huge amounts and never become addicted, he says. They simply drink because they enjoy it, and could stop at any time. Others drink relatively little - and may even go for weeks without alcohol - but are nevertheless considered problem drinkers. Once a problem crops up, they turn to the bottle. "That's the crux," he says. "They depend on it psychologically. Although it's a different kind of dependency than being physically addicted to alcohol - and you can be both, of course - it can be just as detrimental to life."

But because, like all addictions, denial is a major symptom, how do you know if you are already on the slippery slope? Some tell-tale signs include not wanting to drive to any social event, dropping friends who are teetotal, feeling negative when you don't drink, becoming confrontational on a regular basis and a general sense that you should cut down. Dr Derek Lee, a consultant clinical psychologist specialising in alcohol and drug misuse, says: "Usually it's others that recognise the signs quicker than you. So if people start commenting on your drinking, perhaps it should ring alarm bells."

A feeling of compulsion is a clear red light, regardless of how much you drink, according to Andrew Vincent, service manager on the Priory's addiction programme. "Two people can share the same couple of bottles of wine, but one of them limits her binge while the other can't stop."

THE RISKS

If one thing is clear, it's that overindulgence is not good for our bodies, particularly women's. Until recently, medical research focused on men, with the assumption that what happened to the male body also happened to the female. Now we know that if a man and woman of the same weight drink the same amount, the woman will get drunk more quickly and damage her liver more seriously.

"There is very strong evidence that the rate of alcohol-related liver disease is increasing in both men and women, with the mortality rate trebling in the last 20 years," says Dr Guy Ratcliffe, the medical director of the Medical Council on Alcohol. "We used to see full-blown alcohol liver diseases very rarely before the age of 40. Now we are seeing it in the late twenties."

He adds that, despite all the publicity about a glass or two of red wine reducing the risk of a heart attack, people who drink more than that can sharply increase the risk. "And because alcohol plays a part in raising blood pressure, if you drink more than the recommended intake, there is a danger of coronary heart disease and strokes."

Perhaps most alarming to women who drink to excess, their risk of breast cancer is significantly raised. "There are various theories as to why, but we know that the liver has an impact on hormone production," says Dr Ratcliffe. "Women's fertility can be affected too. Women who drink more than three units a day may be sub-fertile and there is no information as to whether this situation is reversible. For susceptible men, binge-drinking can cause a significant reduction in sperm count, although this is reversible."

THE SOCIAL EFFECTS

The University of Surrey has found that alcohol is blamed as the cause of three out of four "date rapes". Dr Cath White, the clinical director of the St Mary's Centre in Manchester, which works with the victims of sexual assault, says her own findings show that the number of victims who had been drinking when they were attacked has more than doubled in the past 10 years. The odds of unprotected sex among binge-drinkers is also significantly higher.

If you don't realise you're pregnant and drink heavily, you could harm your baby, putting it at risk of developing things such as delinquent behaviour. Some experts claim that binge-drinking during pregnancy may lead to a predisposition for alcoholism in your child.Scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York are working on research that suggests that children at risk of alcoholism dislike salty and sour tastes, and they are working on a "taste test".

At least that's one thing working in my favour. Salty popcorn and sweet-and-sour sauces were among my childhood favourites.

The Danger Signs

If you recognise some of these signs, take Alcohol Concern's test on www.howsyourdrink.org.uk, where you will also find tips for cutting down.

* Getting drunk regularly.

You can't enjoy a night out without having a drink

* Unable to stop drinking when you start.

Some people find it hard to stop once they've started, even if they only drink a couple of times a week

* Needing to drink more for the same effect.

Your body is adapting to the presence of alcohol in the blood

* Losing interest in hobbies because of drinking.

Withdrawing from the world and filling the void with alcohol

* Drinking alone.

Many people who develop serious drinking problems say starting solo drinking was the tipping point

* Making excuses to have a drink.

Having a healthy relationship with drink means choosing to drink and not having to make excuses

* Letting people down as a result of having been drinking.

Drink is a positive part of most of our lives, but it should not be the most important thing

* Drinking during the day.

Most of us cannot fulfil our usual responsibilities during the day if we have been drinking

* Feeling guilty about your drinking.

This may be a sign that your drinking has become a problem

* Shaking in the morning.

There may be other medical reasons for this, but if you're a heavy drinker, shaky hands may mean you are becoming dependent on alcohol and need professional help