Australians are going to have to wish for more than 'good health' before a bout of binge-drinking to avoid sobering consequences to their mental health.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Stephen Parnis described Australia's relationship with alcohol as "extremely unhealthy" and said its impact was "in a class of its own".

"It causes more harm than all other drugs combined," he told the ABC.

Dr Parnis said despite some improvement in the country's attitude towards alcohol, it remained a cultural issue.

"We're dealing with a cultural problem from 1788 where alcohol has been a core aspect of Australian life.

"There is still significant pressure not just to drink, but to drink to excess.

"There is ignorance within the Australian population [to] what constitutes a safe amount of alcohol, and most people underestimate their intake."

The Australian Drug Foundation defines binge drinking as "drinking heavily over a short period of time with the intention of becoming intoxicated".

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) director Professor Michael Farrell said more than a third of the population drank in a manner hazardous to health.

"But it can be said the data indicates things have been pretty flat-lined over the last few years," he said.

"But the sting in the tail of that is there has been a division within some people drinking less and some drinking more."

ABS data released earlier this year shows alcohol consumption in 2013-14 was at its lowest level since the 1960s.

But while drinking may be at 50-year low, analysis of two ABS data surveys - 2001 and 2011-2012 - by the Medical Journal of Australia actually suggests consumption of alcohol has increased in recent years.

Killing off brain cells 'not just a saying'

Dr Parnis said there was no doubt alcohol contributed to mental illness.

"You could say 20 to 25 per cent of the population suffers from serious depression at some stage of life," he said.

"If you are depressed and intoxicated the risk of you causing self-harm or taking your own life dramatically increases.

According to beyondblue, 45 per cent of Australians will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime.

Federation for Alcohol Research and Education data shows there are close to 160,000 alcohol-related hospitalisations every year.

Forty per cent of those are due to neuropsychiatric diseases for women, and 30 per cent for men.

"The community adage about losing one's neurons has some degree of truth," Dr Parnis said.

"Neurons are permanent cells. They are not cells that can regrow."

Professor Farrell said the connection between alcohol and mental health was especially concerning in adolescents and young adults when the brain was still developing.

"If you look at teenagers when they are introduced to alcohol at a time of considerable change in their lives ... some people can fall into substantial problems with that quite quickly.

"Self-harm, depression, anxiety, suicide risk — they all shoot up around this time."

Data from the US National Alliance on Mental Illness shows 25 per cent of people who develop a mental health disorder during their lifetimes will have onset by age 7, 50 per cent by age 14 and 75 per cent by age 24.

Cheap Tuesday, Thirsty Thursday

Nineteen-year-old Queenslander Tara was a straight-A student with a hard-earned bank balance and boyfriend.

Binge drinking is just part of university life, Tara says. ( Flickr: Tristanforestjames )

But things took a boozy turn when the five-year relationship broke down. She started drinking heavily and as a result was flunking school and burning through her savings.

"Sometimes I would go out Friday, Saturday and Sunday night," Tara said.

She said peer-pressure played a significant role in her drinking choices.

"It's outrageous how much you're expected to drink and how often [at uni]. In college it's full on — you drink during the week, you have Cheap Tuesday and Thirsty Thursday, then you drink all weekend."

After a blurry semester, Tara's lack of funds and struggle with depression, which she had been diagnosed with the year prior, prompted a wake-up call.

"I've worked since I was 13 and always had savings. It was bizarre for me not to have savings," she said.

"It got pretty dark for me, I stopped taking my antidepressants."

Despite this, Tara believes drinking is not dangerous if done responsibly.

"I still drink [but] I'm drinking less often and more responsibly. My grades are the best they've ever been. I'm focusing on my mental health," she said.

Tara is now an ambassador for ReachOut, a national not-for-profit youth service.

ReachOut spokesman Doug Millen said binge drinking was in the top five read topics on the site.

"Binge drinking is an important issue for ReachOut as many young people like Tara don't realise it's a problem until it's affecting their lives deeply," he said.

The kids are all right: Pennay

La Trobe University Centre for Policy Alcohol Research's Dr Amy Pennay said young people were often demonised as leading a "binge-drinking epidemic", but the evidence said otherwise.

A research paper from Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other drugs shows drinking among teenagers had declined over the past 15 years.

National Drug Strategy Household Survey data indicates the number of 12 to 15-year-olds who reported drinking the past year halved from 2004 to 2013.

"It's a bugbear of mine when we talk about the homogeneous culture of drinking," Dr Pennay told the ABC.

"There are so many different subcultures of drinking — young people who are shunning alcohol and groups of people who still go out and drink really heavily.

"Tackling alcohol as a cultural issue at a national level is unlikely to be effective because everybody's relationships with alcohol is different."

That said, she acknowledged alcohol was a "big problem" and said it was the worst substance in terms of its harms to the individual and to others.

"Even though consumption is going down, we're still seeing high levels of harms in emergency departments, it's the number one problem for police on the weekends," she said.

She said public health could do better to make consumers more aware of the link between alcohol and mental health.

Charge more, drink less

Professor Farrell said increasing cost was the most "robust way" of reducing alcohol consumption.

"The problem is we have an industry that is keen for people to buy and consume as much as possible," he said.

ReachOut's drinking problem signs: Worrying about when you will be able to have your next drink.

Worrying about when you will be able to have your next drink. Suffering from withdrawal symptoms like sweating, nausea or insomnia as a result of not drinking alcohol.

Suffering from withdrawal symptoms like sweating, nausea or insomnia as a result of not drinking alcohol. Needing to drink more and more alcohol to get drunk.

Needing to drink more and more alcohol to get drunk. Drinking alcohol, or desiring to drink alcohol, when you wake up in the morning.

Drinking alcohol, or desiring to drink alcohol, when you wake up in the morning. Consuming alcohol regularly on your own, or trying to hide your alcohol consumption from those around you.

Consuming alcohol regularly on your own, or trying to hide your alcohol consumption from those around you. Relationships with friends or family are being effected by your drinking.

Dr Pennay agreed reducing accessibility and affordability were successful measures.

"Things that make it more expensive, increasing tax, and reducing trading hours and venue density ... these have good research evidence," she said.

Dr Parnis and Professor Farrell added reassessing alcohol advertising in connection with sport was also vital.

Recently the Department of Health's Fiona Nash responded to calls to legalise ice and said: "A Coalition Government will never legalise a drug that destroys brain function, mental wellbeing, general health, employment, relationships, lives and families."

Dr Parnis responded, saying reducing alcohol-related harm needed to be more of a priority.

"Those very sentiments have to be considered in the context of alcohol which causes far more death and destruction and harm than ice ever has," he said.