Drunkorexia: New Buzzword for an Old Problem

Thin at Any Cost

The actions of young women, and some young men, who desire to stay thin and still be able to party hardy has coined a new buzzword, Drunkorexia. Drunkorexia is nothing new, it's an old problem that used to be referred to as 'drinking your dinner' or 'being on a liquid diet'.

According to a recent report on The Morning Show, drunkorexics are primarily women in the 18-34 year old age bracket who skip meals, or starve themselves all day, so they can drink at night. Young college aged women, women with modeling or acting careers, or those who aspire to have a modeling or acting career are under pressure to remain thin at any cost. Hollywood refers to drunkorexia as a long term diet plan. The long term cost is high, but drunkorexics disregard the damage that they are doing to their health to stay thin.

The people who have drunkorexia substitute the calories they would normally get from food for calories they consume through alcoholic beverages. Drunkorexics reason that the calories, whether eaten or drunk, total the same amount.

The drunkorexic starts out having one drink, which leads to two drinks, which will lead to becoming drunk very quickly. Because there is no food in the drunkorexic's stomach, the alcohol they consume is absorbed into the blood stream and goes to the liver in as little as 15 minutes. A person who has eaten, the food in their stomach will act similar to a sponge and absorb some of the alcohol consumed and releases it at a slower rate into the blood stream.

Drunkorexics block out, perhaps 'black out', the damage that they are doing to their body, externally and internally. Drunkorexics are concerned about their outward appearance, they block out the fact that lack of proper nutrition coupled with excessive alcohol consumption actually ages a person. Skin wrinkles, it becomes dull and discolored prematurely, bodies bloat, that look could end a career before it got started, regardless of how thin a drunkorexic was.