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"Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots", they kept yelling. I was standing in the middle of the dorm room with a beer mug filled to the brim. I was expected to chug it and move on to doing Tequila shots. This party had seemed like an awesome idea when I read its glorified post on both Instagram and Snapchat, but it wasn’t just that. It was epic.

I lifted the jug to my lips, closed my eyes and greedily gulped all the beer down my throat. I could feel some of it wetting my shirt as it spilt from the corners of my mouth. It was supposed to be a great party. Nausea was starting to creep up, and all I needed was to get to the bathroom and throw up. I really had not thought this through.

We had been drinking non-stop since that afternoon, and it wasn't the first time I was doing it. All I could think of was that I was now becoming a certified binge drinker. I wasn’t too worried, though, because I thought that I could always make the right decision no matter how drunk I was.

Since high school, binge drinking had become a norm. It was something my friends, and I looked forward to doing every weekend. When I got to university, I took it up a notch, supervision was minimal at best, and my parents had no idea what I was up to. Back then, it was the most fun I had ever had. I pretty much felt invincible, and I made tons of new friends who were out to party hard.

Of course, subconsciously, I knew that bingeing wasn’t good for me partly because every bad thing that had happened to me in the recent past had stemmed from drinking. There was the constant tripping and falling face-first into things. There was losing my keys, phone, my beloved laptop, and unexplainable memory lapses, the list of mishaps kept getting longer, and I was having a hard time pretending I wasn’t aware. I kept thinking to myself that this pattern had to change or something bad was going to happen soon enough. But I would completely forget about it when the next party came along.

And that’s when it happened. My friend and I got into a wreck. I don’t remember much; most of it is still blurry because I was blacked out. What I do remember is the excruciating pain in my head and at the back of my neck. I can still feel the seat belt tightly crushing me across my chest. Something was burning because the smell of acrid smoke was choking me and making my eyes water. I remember praying like I had never prayed before.

My inability to comprehend that bingeing was impairing my judgment almost cost me my life. In hindsight, that accident was my wake-up call. It made me reevaluate my decision-making process. My friend who was driving wasn’t so lucky. He ended up with a life-changing injury.

At some point, all alcohol drinkers wonder if they are overdoing it. The reality is everyone has a different tolerance threshold when it comes to alcohol. However, a drinking pattern that involves imbibing a large amount of alcohol within a short period of time is cause for concern. Binge drinking will most likely escalate your blood alcohol content (BAC), to unsafe levels that can be dangerous to your health or be fatal. Please take it from me, there's nothing wrong with the occasional drink, but drinking in excess like I was isn't worth it.