Drunkorexia, also known as alcohorexia or ebriorexia, comes from drunk (intoxicated) and orexia (appetite).
It is a combination of anorexia and alcoholism, both being very dangerous disorders. Those affected replace food calories with drink calories. In this way, they do not eat for hours or barely eat during the day to compensate for the calories they have consumed or will consume with alcohol.
It mainly affects young people, who are overly concerned with their image and do not want to give up alcohol as a form of entertainment. Women are the most affected, as their blood absorbs between 30% and 50% more alcohol than men’s. Their heart and liver are also more vulnerable, as they need less alcohol than men to suffer deterioration problems.
In this way, they believe that if they eliminate the calories ingested through alcohol from the rest of their meals, they will not gain weight or get fat, thus maintaining their figure. Therefore, this disorder has many negative consequences, both psychologically and physically. Excessive alcohol consumption in a malnourished body can lead to health problems, from irritability to gastrointestinal and dental issues, liver damage, or hair loss.
In some cases, drunkorexia can stem from suffering from anorexia or alcoholism, but in others, it is this disease itself that triggers one or both.
Alcohol is the most consumed legal drug in the world and is present in many social activities, whether with family, friends, colleagues… We tend to think that its consumption is fun and helps us escape, but the reality is that it is a very dangerous drug as it alters our normal activity.
At CC Adicciones, our goal is to return control of their lives to patients, providing all the necessary support and medical supervision that will allow them to stop drinking.
