Blogs, tweets, and clandestine camaraderie on college campuses are fueling the newest addiction among collegians—drunkorexia. What is it? A recent ABCNEWS report describes it with these details:
"According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcoholism and eating disorders frequently co–occur and often co–occur in the presence of other psychiatric and personality disorders."
"Psychologists stress that the main cause of drunkorexia is addiction."
"Abuse counselors are putting the word 'drunkorexia' in line with other eating disorders because the patient uses the same type of methods as anorexia and bulimia- they just mix it with alcohol too," said Dr. Kevin Prince, Alcohol & Other Drug Education Program Coordinator at the University Health Services in Austin, Texas.
What is the link between alcoholism, bulimia and anorexia? Dr. Stewart Cooper, Director of Grad Psychology Programs and Counseling Services at Valparaiso University said the commonalities occur when “there is planning and focus on the addiction itself.”
Though many campuses, such as NYU and University of Minnesota, are trying to expose and educate students to the power of addiction by posting binge-drinking ads and adhering to “no drinking in the dorm,” the problems are most certainly not going away.
I recently spent a few hours with a couple of kids who are addicts—young, barely sober, and uncertain if their lives can be restored. Their upbringing told a story as much as their current situation. My heart broke for them because I too had experienced teenage addiction and hopelessness. Yet, my long-standing sobriety has not only earned me the “right to be heard” with young addicts, but it makes me an advocate for them.
Here is what I KNOW from personal experience as an addict and from the hundreds of first-person interviews I've held with students who are addicted:
1. Fewer and fewer students come from families with two parents who are actively involved with their lives. This means that many social and moral mores are “up for grabs” with every student.
2. Peer pressure is extremely powerful. Great kids are finding it very difficult, when faced with the option of “popularity vs. loneliness”, to stand for what they believe or for what is right.
3. Substances today or almost instantly addictive. Not only are today’s drugs cheap and easy to obtain; their high is so immediate, that common sense or financial hardship or loss becomes irrelevant.
I implore you—the larger, community of "parents-who-care" to make some noise and get involved with students on the campuses of which you’re an alumni or where you have children attending. How? Send $ for programs, such as alcohol-free high school prom events or sponsor (coordinate, underwrite) a drug-free forum for a collegiate organization in your community or which you support or were a member. Additionally, request an appointment to ask questions of administrators, then become part of the solution by providing alternate activities for students or donating time as a mentor to listen and care for the most vulnerable of this young generation.
I am convinced that making a few little changes in your life—spending money, making phone calls, getting involved in a mentorship program—will have big, if not life-changing, results in one or more students' lives.
Be encouraged to change our culture!
Becky
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