by Michelle Huegel

Created on: September 15, 2009

Have you ever heard of "drunkorexia"? I hadn't either until recently. My sister, Tina, and I had always been "skinny Minnies" with flamingo legs and toothpick arms. As I grew into an adult, my body gradually changed and I filled out "in all the right places." My sister, two years behind me, was a different story. Instead of rounded hips and curvy calves, she looked like a Third World refugee, except she was "never hungry." I teased her about counting her ribs, but really I was worried-Is she anorexic?

It was hard to say anything to Tina; her demanding, emotionally abusive boyfriend kept her close. I wondered if he affected her eating habits-he liked her skinny.

Adding to the puzzle, I found out that she partied hard and drank a lot. Where do the calories go? I wondered. Alcoholic drinks really pack them in.

Drunkorexia: A Scary New Trend

Enter "drunkorexia." It's a made-up term for a scary new trend, mostly among young women. Statistics from a CBS The Early Show study suggest that "30% of women ages 18-23 restrict food calories so they can drink more and not gain weight from consuming alcohol."

Carrie Wilkens, a clinical psychologist and addiction expert, talked on The Early Show about the dangers of drunkorexia. "Food slows the absorption and acts as a buffer from becoming intoxicated too quickly," she said. "After not having eaten all day and in some cases . . . many days in a row, that first drink has a big affect[sic]." According to Wilkens, women, who produce less of an alcohol-metabolizing enzyme, suffer from a higher risk of blackouts and liver cirrhosis. And of course, girls are more likely to be physically or sexually abused while drunk.

But guys aren't in the clear. Think of it this way: all the normal risks of drinking or being drunk are increased, because a drunkorexic gets drunk quicker and affected stronger. Plus, drunkorexia often indicates another problem, like alcohol abuse or anorexia.

Knowledge is Power: All about Eating Disorders

But drunkorexia is only the fresh, sharp tip of the eating disorder iceberg. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, anorexia nervosa affects .5-1% of young men and women, bulimia nervosa 1-2%, and Binge Eating Disorder (BED) 1-5%.

While anorexia is basically starving yourself, guys and girls struggling with bulimia stuff themselves regularly, called "bingeing," and then purge by vomiting, laxatives, or obsessive exercise to "get rid of" the extra food. About 80% of bulimics are female, and

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