(Newser)
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College kids suffering from eating disorders are increasingly grappling with the added complication of "drunkorexia." Drunkorexics, most of them women, skip eating to reserve calories for binge drinking. While many students are proud of their ability to down copious amounts of booze without gaining weight by relying on starvation diets or bulimia, experts warn that they are seriously compromising their health, notes ABC News. The practice is wrapped up in tough-to-cure addictive behavior and often involves other psychiatric problems.
"Whether it's alcoholism, drug abuse, or some type of eating disorder, an addiction is still an addiction and has to be helped," said a psychology grad student who volunteers at a student recovery center. "If not, the results could be deadly." Warns the head of an eating disorder clinic in Denver: "Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness. It's an incredibly serious disorder. When you're starving yourself, your brain is really starved. You've had the experience of drinking on an empty stomach? These folks are drinking on an empty body." (Click here to read about one way anorexics try to hide their disorder.)
