Sunday, November 29, 2009

Just when I think the media can't get stupider...

Drunkorexia.

This offends me on several levels.

1. I think tries to compare itself erroneously to anorexia nervosa which actually kills people.
2. What's next? Cakeorexia?
3. This is something that EVERYONE does. Eating disordered or not.

For those of you that don't know what this is, the media will try and make this sound really complicated, but basically it's saving calories so you can drink more. And if cakorexia does exist (which I argue it does), we already do this. Save calories to make room for cake.

I have a severe form of drunkorexia which I've come to realize deeply concerns my fellow cohort in the pub. While everyone is ordering crisps and cider and beer, I come upstairs with my drink of choice. A wise one in my opinion.

A shot of vodka and a glass of water.

Efficiency in its highest form. Saving you on money, calories, and time spent getting drunk (which is the only reason to drink in the first place... to get buzzed. Don't argue with me about taste, drink god-damned grape juice if you want something that tastes good, alcohol is juice that's sat out too long).

Perhaps I'm jaded because I've gone for a week consuming water alone and not died so when people tell me things are dangerous, I tut tut and have decided that there are worse things I can do.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's stupid coming up with a new name for a disease that already exists. Especially one as lame as "drunkorexia". I think what's fueled it is the fact that 25 % of people who are hospitalized for eating disorders (in Denmark at least) are also addicted to alcohol. But mental illnesses are carpoolers - they never come alone. They always bring friends like addiction or self-injury. It's just more exciting to write about alcoholic skinny girls, because people can have an excuse to buy "Girls Gone Wild"-tapes and be even more outraged than before. And we totally need more outrage in the world, you know.

Riiight.

Anonymous said...

word xx

PrettyWreck said...

You know...when I first of drunkorexia, it wasn't that at all.

Drunkorexia, when I heard of it like...a couple years ago, was about girls who didn't eat anything (anorexics) who would go on binges of alcohol. It was classified outside of anorexia not because they were saving calories, but because they were severely emotionally disordered, and were anorexics, who had an alcohol problem. And they became drunk easier, and when they binged on liquor, they often wound up in hospitals.

It's girls who are anorexic and get drunk enough to get hospitalized. Not...girls who don't eat so they can drink. But alcoholics who don't eat because they're anorexic. Does that make sense?

I first heard it as a slang term when a girl came into a hospital I worked at. She was fifteen, and it was her third round there that week. Only this time, she was intensive care for a few days, because she had consumed so much, and her heart was so weak because she was literally like...skin and bones. And I remember being so sad, because here she was, getting drunk, and being dragged in by these adult guys, and you know where this girl went who came in in her skimpy little outfit with severe alcohol poisoning and in a two week long coma?


Into the pediatrics wing.

She was too young to be put in with the adults.
But old enough to starve herself to nothing but bones, have an STD, and drink herself to near death.

So...that's what people in hospitals call drunkorexia (or used to when I worked there back in 2004/2005). Not...someone who saves calories so they can drink.



And also--I hate alcohol. I drink to get rid of colds only XD But...otherwise, I can't stand the shit. EVER. You're right--there's really no point unless it's to get drunk.




I also agree with foreignobject, above. Because yeah. It's just more scandalous. I mean, there's no need for it to be in the media. And it was only used as slang when I worked in the hospital to describe severely anorexic and alcoholic girls, who didn't eat and just drank, and you called them that so when the security guard or other nurses had to deal witht hem, you knew what to expect.

Ana's Girl said...

Wow, are they serious? Drunkorexia? What the hell is that--i mean besides ridiculous! I'm rather offended by it as well, and i love your point with "cakeorexia."

Savory Sweet said...

@Pretty Wreck

I definitely hear what you're saying, but if you do a google search of the term... more often than not you get articles with headlines like: "Drunkorexia slimmers skip meals for alcohol" (Telegraph) or "Drunkorexics offset calories from drink by skipping meals"...

I think it's probably an oversimplification of what is mostly anorexics who are alcoholics (I consider myself a high functioning alcoholic... aka I never drink because when I do things fall apart) which is not a new idea.

But drunkorexia in the media is also being attributed to girls without eating disorders. Women (and men!) who are just saving the calories so they can drink more and not have cheated on a fad diet or something.

This is where it becomes a problematic term for me.

---

But I absolutely adore that you all write such brilliant comments... I only wish I could engage in each debate after each post :) :)

xx

 
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