The Skinny on Drunkorexia

The next time you pass out on that toilet bowl throwing up luscious chunks of HUDS popcorn chicken after a long night of regrettable, irresponsible drinking, comfort yourself with one thought: you’re probably not suffering from “drunkorexia.” Or are you?

While not an official medical term, drunkorexia refers to the combination of alcohol abuse and anorexia or bulimia—a medical condition that researchers and therapists say is becoming increasingly prevalent, especially among female college students. (It joins an already absurd eating disorder lexicon that includes words such as “manorexia” and “bigorexia.”) Those afflicted typically starve themselves all day before drinking in order to offset those liquid calories, or dangerously binge and purge food and alcohol.

Now, sure, many a college student has refrained from feasting at dinner in order to ensure that there’s ample room for the beer shotgunning to follow in the evening. And nothing gives that tired screwdriver more kick than an empty stomach—an emptiness that’ll also help you achieve the same comedic stupor with less alcohol.

But despite its familiar premises and rather laughable label, experts say drunkorexia’s growing prevalence—likely caused by emotional stress and societal pressure—needs to be taken seriously. Learn more after the jump.

Amy Armstrong, clinical director for the Boston-based Multiservice Eating Disorders Association, told Flyby that clinicians from her organization working with area colleges, which include Harvard, have definitely noticed a growing number of drunkorexia cases. She didn’t have statistics for drunkorexia and didn't cite Harvard specifically, but noted that in 2009, an estimated one in 12 college students struggled with eating disorders. Of the 24 million people diagnosed with eating disorder cases in the U.S., she said, roughly two-thirds were college students.

The fact that “self-harm behaviors” such as substance abuse and cutting are increasingly correlated with eating disorders shows that “people are under higher levels of stress and [are] not getting help for what they’re needing,” Armstrong said.

For now, Harvard seems to have largely dodged drunkorexia. J.P. Chilazi ’10, president of University Health Services' Drug & Alcohol Peer Advisors, said he hasn’t heard of the condition being a problem here and noted that a 2008 campus survey found 96 percent of all Harvard students eating before or while drinking. But as “someone who knows a fair amount about alcohol consumption patterns,” he said he found the condition’s name to be “bizarre” and hoped for a “more technical name” to emerge in the future.

Flyby agrees: it’s tough to ask students to take the condition seriously when those afflicted are called “drunkorexics."

Picture from Brownings/Wikimedia Commons