Discussions of “drunkorexia” and similar trends are more in the vein of worried parents than an informed look into drinking culture on campuses.
A recent study conducted at York University found that students are substituting alcohol for food — a behaviour dubbed “drunkorexia.”
Among those who exhibited this behaviour were students plagued by depression or eating disorders. But it was also reported in students for reasons such as saving money or expediency in getting drunk to escape stress.
Undeniably, drinking behaviour among young people is a serious concern.
Consumption of alcohol among university students is often linked with many other serious issues, such as sexual assault, alcoholism and poor mental health. However, symptoms of deeply-rooted problems shouldn’t be mistaken for the problems themselves.
The issue isn’t that a student suffering from a mental illness might be more likely to eat less in order to drink more, but that they’re suffering from a mental illness in the first place.
A superficial focus on the sporadic habits of students isn’t a helpful way to talk about drinking cultures on university campuses, nor about the ill effects of suffocating debt and impossibly high workloads.
By incorporating the name of a serious eating disorder into a catchy title, it demonstrates the worrisome flippancy many have toward a deeply-entrenched norm of substance abuse.
We’re often too uncomfortable to open that can of worms. Thus, the conversation about how to have a safe social space on campus, where people aren’t endangering themselves, isn’t happening.
It’s no longer enough to say that the way university students choose to consume alcohol is a problem or find new labels.
The conversation is now about finding a feasible solution.
— Journal Editorial Board
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