No, it’s not a medical term, but with the widespread acceptance of alcohol and drug use and societal pressures to maintain a thin physique, drunkorexia may be the next big “trendy” disorder. A New York Times article titled “Starving Themselves, Cocktail in Hand” reports on this new problem.

Drunkorexia is not an official medical term. But it hints at a troubling phenomenon in addiction and eating disorders. Among those who are described as drunkorexics are college-age binge drinkers, typically women, who starve all day to offset the calories in the alcohol they consume. The term is also associated with serious eating disorders, particularly bulimia, which often involve behavior like bingeing on food — and alcohol — and then purging.

The article states that the typical anorexic avoids alcohol because of the high calorie content; however they may ingest alcohol to numb the anxiety around having to eat or having eaten a full meal. Further there are some anorexics that use alcohol as a food substitute;

‘’There are women who are afraid to put a grape in their mouth but have no problem drinking a beer,’ said Douglas Bunnell, the director of outpatient clinical services for the Renfrew Center, based in Philadelphia.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 pm and is filed under General, Brain and Behavior, Anxiety and Panic, Eating Disorders, Alcoholism, Health-related, Anorexia, Celebrities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

Last reviewed:
  On March 2, 2008
  By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.