The American version of social drinking is holding a drink while you chat with someone.
The British accept binge drinking from a very early age. It’s the thing that shocked me the most when I spent time in England. Teenagers would be passed out drunk on the streets. The paper reported that one drowned falling out of a ferry full of other drunk teenagers. I’m guessing a scene like that is what this women thinks was “social drinking”.
True- I used to work for a British company and occasionally attended conferences in England.
After the daily event, we would retire to the pub—usually at the site we met—and have a few after-dinner drinks.
For every beer I drank, the locals would put down two to three. I remember chatting with a guy who put down 9 beers in the time I did three. I was feeling pretty toasty and he acted like he was perfectly sober.