SERIOUS BINGE

A Binge By Any Other Name

Whinging about bingeing

Photo by Pinho . on Unsplash

I remember a time when bingeing was generally considered a bad thing. The word was reserved for taking too many drugs, drinking, or eating too much in a harmful way. Unfortunately, with eating it was usually followed by purging as a symptom of bulimia.

At some point between then and now, binge shopping became a thing which let the word slide toward the “acceptable things to do” category.

Today, if you hear the word binge, most often it’s referencing a series on one of the streaming services. While this may not be as harmful as binge drug use or binge eating, it is not harmless.

But, the word itself “BINGE” has slid even further into the realm of socially acceptable activities.

While I am happy for the word BINGE, which has slid far enough into social acceptance as to be today’s Wordle answer, I fear that we are losing the seriousness of the binge/purge combination that for so many of us was a definitive part of bulimia.

I have not suffered from bulimia myself, but I have had acquaintances who were tending down that path because of some emotional difficulty, or unfair societal body standards. It is a serious and difficult thing to deal with, and anybody who is suffering from it needs our help. I fear that by making the word “BINGE” more socially acceptable we are in danger of losing the understanding the seriousness of binge drinking, eating, or drug taking.

Once again, I am short on solutions, but I would caution those who hear the word BINGE in an every day combination to not discount that it may have a darker meaning, and that the person using it may need more help than fitting season three into their social calendar.