Academic Bulimia

February 24, 2006
Academic Bulimia

Pin-Chieh Chiang -- Do you feel like you have been binge-learning? Is there evidence of disordered studying in your environment? Do you find yourself visiting the exam room soon after you've studied to regurgitate the information you've barely swallowed? Are there signs of a rigid study regimen despite weather, fatigue, illness, or injury? Are you experiencing calluses on your fingers from too much note taking? Have you been withdrawn from friends and activities? Have you put on or lost an extreme amount of weight?

The questions above are adapted from bulimia, the eating disorder. If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you might be suffering from academic bulimia. I first heard this term during orientation from Dr. Troll, the Associate Dean here at TUCOM. I didn't think much about it until this past week when I attended a meeting about curriculum changes for next year. Dr. Troll led the meeting to explain the underlying concepts and motivations for the upcoming changes, and again discussed the concept of academic bulimia.

As I listened to him describe the cyclical process of cramming in and regurgitating information, I couldn't help but notice the reality of his concept. In some way or form, medical students have to deal with academic bulimia, especially when exams get closer. I definitely feel like I binge-learn. It's only the second week of this block and I am disordered in my learning and I just can't seem to keep pace with the lectures. Right now I am learning for the concepts and I know in just a few short weeks I'll be learning for the exams. Then I will purge in about 10-12 trips to the exam room and start all over again. However, I'd like to think that I'll manage to digest some information, because I still need it for that final purge of Board exams.

A very interesting article in Medscape Students Blog website has put a name to what students everywhere (especially doctors!) seem to do for exams - academic bulimia. Bulimia is the act of binge-eating and then purging oneself as an expiation of the guilt of eating, and though we don't regurgitate the information we ingest out of guilt, we do get that guilty feeling after we've regurgitated everything and don't remember it at all, so yes, I think that's a pretty good comparison.

It's sad though, isn't it, how we continue in this bulimic cycle even though we need that knowledge like we need our life (to help others keep their lives). It's as though we need/want to keep our information body stick-thin, although letting it become fat and prosperous like an ox (the Greek word "bous" for ox makes up the word bulimia) benefits everyone in the long run. Not to mention the long-term complications - acid reflux and what not.

I doubt this trend is going to change though. It's just too easy to do - this eat-and-throw-up practice. At least not for me, although I'm suffering some of the complications now. But like the writer of the above post, I do hope that with all the in-and-out movement of information, some will at least get retained, and hopefully those bits will be the important ones!