Individuals may normalize heavy alcohol use by comparing themselves to others who drink more, even if their own consumption places them at higher risk for all-cause morbidity and mortality.

“one of the things that often happens is people will normalize their use by affiliating with other people who drink heavily so they'll say well you know you may think that's a lot but my fraternity brother Joe drinks way more than I do it's like well yes but in in the general population you're in the one percentile um in terms of even just the amounts that you drink and we know that but just based on amounts you're at higher risk for all cause morbidity mortality even separate from our diagnosing an addictive disorder”