‘Drunkorexia’

What are ‘eating difficulties’?

EDEN uses the term eating difficulties to refer to a wide range of women’s and men’s body and eating experiences and practices. This includes the clinically defined eating disorders anorexia and bulimia as well as issues such as eating past fullness, excessive exercising, restricting, purging, body dissatisfaction, ‘drunkorexia’ and yo-yo dieting.

How to recognise ‘Drunkorexia’.

‘Drunkorexia’ is not a clinically defined eating disorder.  The term refers to a set of behaviours which combine restricted eating and binge drinking.  The practice involves skipping meals, not eating at all or eating very little to counterbalance or contradict the calories that alcohol contains

Someone who is struggling with ‘drunkorexic’ behaviours may:

• Feel nervous and guilty about eating before, during or after drinking alcohol
• Starve themselves for periods of time before, during or after drinking alcohol
• Find themselves continually on a diet
• Eat according to a set of rules that they have created and not according to when they feel hungry
• Exercise excessively before, during or after drinking alcohol
• Feel that their body is never quite ‘right’
• Feel terrified of gaining weight
• Believe that everything would be alright if only they had the ‘ideal’ figure

Is it time for me to get help?

Consider your responses to these questions:

• Is this a problem for me a lot of the time?
• What changes have I noticed lately?
• Does this stop me from doing the things I would otherwise do?
• Does it cause me to feel bad about myself or put myself down?
• Do I feel unable to talk to anyone about this?
• Do I feel ashamed of this?
• Does this isolate me from other people?
• Does it diminish my quality of life?

If the answer is “yes” to one or more of these questions it may be time to seek help.

Please click here for a PDF of this factsheet.