‘I would pretend I didn’t like food’: The lethal ‘drunkorexia’ cocktail affecting growing numbers of young women

When eating disorders are combined with alcohol abuse, it can prove to be fatal. Maya Oppenheim speaks to two sufferers and considers what can be done to help

A recent study by South Australia University describes ‘drunkorexia’ as the ‘damaging and dangerous’ practice of cutting down on eating while drinking excess alcohol in a bid to stop putting on weight (iStock)

Even now if I know I’m going to drink I will definitely skip dinner, and at most try and only have breakfast in the morning,” Elizabeth tells The Independent. “It’s pretty much automatic now. It’s such an ingrained habit I can’t begin to imagine it being any other way. Even the thought of not limiting food before or because of drinking makes me incredibly anxious.”

The 30-year-old, who is a fitness instructor, says she suffers from a phenomenon routinely described as “drunkorexia” but which is not recognised as a diagnosable eating disorder.

Elizabeth, who does not want her last name used, is not alone. A recent study by South Australia University, which describes “drunkorexia” as the “damaging and dangerous” practice of cutting down on eating while drinking excess alcohol in a bid to stop putting on weight, found over 80 per cent of the 479 female university students they polled had done this in the past three months.