"Drunkorexia" on the Rise Among College-Aged Women

A new and scary trend is becoming the norm for many college-aged women. In order to save on calories during the day and justify the calories consumed through alcoholic binges, college women are starving themselves leading to what is known as "drunkorexia". Experts say that college-aged students are the most likely to participate in the dangerous behavior of starving themselves during the day and then binging on alcohol at night.

Naturally, college-aged women who are concerned with their body image are the most likely to engage in the behavior. Not only is it harmful because of the self-induced starvation and alcohol binge, but these young women also harm their bodies by consuming large amounts of junk food after drinking to compensate for the lack of food earlier in the day. Although drunkorexia is not recognized as an official eating disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, it could be labeled as a disordered eating habit or "eating disorder otherwise not specified" (a new category in the most recent DSM).

Students are highly influenced by media images of certain body types, which can lead to drunkorexia or other strange eating habits in an attempt to meet these impossibly high standards, which are not always healthy standards to begin with. Furthermore, experts also say that giving a set of behaviors a label can also help with the identification of the problem and proper treatment. Without a label, students affected by drunkorexia may think that their symptoms really aren't that serious and don't merit much attention.