“Alcohol was way too big a focus for me,” says 20-something “Lisa” (whose name has been changed to protect her identity), describing her life as an undergrad at James Madison University in Virginia.

Now a grad student who claims to have neither the time nor the stamina to maintain her old habits, Lisa says that the night before classes began this semester, she went out with some friends visiting from out of town. “I went to class the next day so hung-over, I wanted to die!”

And just a few months ago, she was hanging out and drinking with a couple of male friends: “They kept asking me if I was okay, but I was so drunk, I couldn’t talk. They finally had to walk me back to my place. I spent the next day throwing up.”

“But I wouldn’t say I have a drinking problem,” Lisa continues. “I have a way bigger problem with food because I obsess about it and it interferes with my life and my happiness. That’s not the case with alcohol. I don’t feel addicted. When I don’t want to drink, I don’t drink. I have been severely drunk several times, but I’m not a binge drinker.”

Lisa’s story is common enough to serve as a standard for how college students, especially females, treat alcohol.

“That’s exactly why we’re trying to change the language of the problem,” says Ginger Mackay-Smith, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. “We’re trying to de-stigmatize the perception of ‘binge drinking,’ a term that students are beginning to reject out-of-hand.”

“We prefer the term ‘high-risk drinking’ because it helps keep the focus on the individual’s behavior and choices,” Mackay-Smith adds.

Guidelines for what is considered binge drinking are based on various studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control. The baseline of five or more drinks in one sitting for males and four or more for females “was useful to develop research in order to compare drinking patterns,” says Mackay-Smith. “But it’s not helpful as a way to address the overall problem because the definition doesn’t discriminate from individual to individual, especially among females.”