Drunkorexia

Drunkorexia

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, those aged 18-24 with eating disorders have the highest rate of death—12 times higher than the average.

The statistics on drunkorexia are staggering. Drunkorexia is the slang word used mainly by college students to describe someone who restricts food calories to make room for all those alcoholic drink calories they will be taking in at the campus party later that night. Drunkorexia may also include purging food and alcoholic drink to avoid the calories. Despite the known risks of these behaviors, the statistics still show that 30% of women between 18 and 23 diets so they can drink and not just drink but drink more.

A recent Southeastern University study of first-year college students found that 14 per cent restricted calories before drinking, six per cent of that number doing so in order not to gain weight. A startling 70 per cent were female. According to the CBC, 35 per cent of people with substance abuse issues also have eating disorders. The statistics pare down drunkorexic to one out of five college students.

Drunkorexia most of often begins with a fear of gaining weight from alcohol and is very prevalent among college-aged women; not to mention more dangerous too. This doesn’t mean that men don’t engage in drunkorexic behaviors at all, because some of them do. In extreme cases, the behaviors associated with drunkorexia are related to bulimia and/or anorexia, in which the alcohol is a catalyst making it easier to vomit or it helps to manage eating anxieties. Individuals don’t have to have eating disorders to be considered drunkorexic though; individuals without eating disorders that restrict their intake of food before going out can still struggle with drunkorexia.

Unfortunately for the sex that drunkorexia most commonly affects, females, it is also significantly more dangerous. Because women weigh less they have fewer metabolizing enzymes and less body water to dilute the alcohol with. A martini on an empty stomach immediately sends alcohol shooting into the system making the blood sugar levels shoot up. The result of this is an entire upheaval of the body’s metabolism which can cause serious instability. Those with eating disorders or with disordered eating patterns essentially disintegrate from the inside out. Alcohol consumes their vitamins and nutrients need to survive and this can lead to serious health problems such as fainting, cognitive impairment, and hypoglycemia.

The dangers of being drunkorexic don’t stop there though. Cutting food calories to take in more drink calories is very risk. Not only can drunkorexia make an eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia worse it can also severely affect the individual’s emotional, mental, and physical health.

•             Drinking on an empty stomach gets you drunk faster, which in turn reduces your self-control and predisposes you to make bad decisions

•             Binge eating may also be experienced because the person is extremely hungry and may be unable to control their urges

•             Purging often follows after these spurts of binging on food

•             Reducing food caloric intake puts a person at risk of not getting the nutrients needed to function properly

•             Self-starvation and alcohol abuse can also lead to blackouts, alcohol poisoning, alcohol-related injury, violence or illness.

•             Drinking on an empty stomach can make the drinker more vulnerable to alcohol-related brain damage.

•             Drinking on an empty stomach can also have a detrimental impact on hydration of the body being able to hang onto minerals and nutrients which can exacerbate symptoms of malnutrition and cognitive problems.

The long term effects are even more severe and the worst case scenario results in an early death. Long term effects of drunkorexia are: osteoporosis, brain damage, cirrhosis of the liver, cardiac problems and death. But this isn’t stopping the drunkorexics. In fact there is a new trend to hit the drunkorexic scene that involves smoking alcohol to get drunk without even needing to consume the actual liquid.

 

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Smoking Alcohol

smoking alcohol

Smoking alcohol is the latest trend following a big stir of what is known as butt chugging. Smoking alcohol is an effort to gain a bigger buzz for fewer calories and many young drinkers are inhaling their booze by pouring it over dry ice or free basing it and sucking up the vapors. Either way, skipping over the stomach and liver is incredibly risky when ingesting alcohol.

Smoking alcohol supposedly provides all of the flavor and intoxication of chugging a mixed drink with none of the sugars and calories; this for some people is a God send. But what they may not realize is they are doing more damage than good. Some of the damage done to the body by smoking alcohol may be more dangerous than the weight they would put on from simply drinking it.

Videos of smoking alcohol can be found all over YouTube of course with young people inhaling a smoky dry ice and alcohol mix. Smoking alcohol is a very dangerous tend particularly among college aged students who are looking for extreme ways to get high. It is particularly popular among the college aged men and women who are trying to restrict calories before a night of partying. It even has a name; drunkorexia.

When someone smokes alcohol what happens is it goes directly into the lungs and circumnavigates the liver. The liver is what metabolizes alcohol but when you smoke it, it goes directly from the lungs to the brain making it very harmful and dangerous. The lungs and membranes in the lungs are highly susceptible to alcohol. Not only that but smoking alcohol can dry out the nasal passages and mouth which can leave many alcohol smokers vulnerable to infections. Smoking alcohol also increases the risk of getting alcohol poisoning. When an individual drinks alcohol normally, if they have drunk too much, they will usually begin to vomit. This cannot happen to someone who is smoking alcohol. Instead if they smoke too much alcohol their body will have no way of getting rid of the toxins and helping itself. This could lead to instant death in a worst case scenario.

Smoking alcohol is one of the most ridiculous and dangerous trends to hit the drinking scene yet and the sad thing is the dangers of smoking alcohol could totally be prevented if people would just do what you are supposed to do with a beverage-drink it. All of these new fads which include vodka tampons,butt chugging and smoking alcohol can lead to so many adverse health effects. In fact just purely drinking alcohol can have adverse effects so the effects of consuming alcohol through smoke, the lining of the bowels, or the lining of the vagina seems doubly unpleasant.

For kids who are looking to get high quickly or are looking to get high without all the calories; they should be careful. Using substances in manners other than the way they were intended to be used is also a clear indication of alcoholism and addiction and that can change your life forever if it doesn’t end it first.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.