We’ve all been there (or many of us, at least): you’ve overdone it at pre-drinks, peaked too soon. It’s not even 11pm and you feel as if you’re going to die. However, you are not one to let your stomach defeat you, oh no. A dedicated sesh-head to the end, you’re willing to do whatever it takes to make it to the club this time. It may have happened months ago, but your housemates’ endless mockery of that time you didn’t make it out because you passed out on the way to the taxi still echoes relentlessly around your brain.
No, you think to yourself, not this time.
You stumble in the vague direction of the toilet. Braced for the questionable substance that is likely to erupt from your stomach any second now, you’re steeled and resilient as you tell yourself, it’s this, or you miss the sesh. And missing the sesh is not an option.
“The grin on your vomit-stained face goes from ear to ear as your housemates look at you with a pride akin to that of a parent holding their new-born child.”
The fingers go down; the vomit comes up. Sometimes this occurs with apparent ease, but more often than not it’s a battle, a fight against your natural urge to put an end to the rising acidity bubbling up into the back of your throat by removing your now-slimy hand from deep in the inside of your mouth.
You persist.
It works. Emerging from the bathroom, you are victorious. The grin on your vomit-stained face goes from ear to ear as your housemates look at you with a pride akin to that of a parent holding their new-born child. The tactical chunder has saved you from their humiliating taunts, enabling you to drink even more than before. You are now ready to tackle the sesh.
—
So many students do it (ironically, myself not included). But how good can it be to force yourself to vomit? I’m sure many of us would hazard a guess at ‘not very’.
“I’m not sure ‘health’ and ‘the sesh’ are phrases that have ever been used in the same sentence.”
Commonly associated with eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa, and originating in Ancient Rome, back when the Romans would force themselves to be sick in order to eat more food, self-induced vomiting can seriously damage the digestive system. Stomach aches, heartburn and acid reflux can become more and more common if you make a habit out of ‘tactically chundering’, as well as enamel erosion and gum disease. What’s more, the human body can actually become used to throwing up, meaning it is more easily triggered in future when drinking or eating excessively. Not fun.
So, whilst the tactical chunder seems like a good idea at the time (perhaps it is, if your priority is how much alcohol you can physically consume in one night), in the long-run it’s probably not your best bet for a healthy mind and body. Then again, I’m not sure ‘health’ and ‘the sesh’ are phrases that have ever been used in the same sentence. There’s probably a reason for that.
If you’re sensible, you might come to the conclusion that it’s safest not to drink so much in the first place. If you’re not sensible, feel free to carry on doing what you’re doing. In the words of some knob from the LAD Bible on Twitter, “Live by the sesh, die by the sesh.”*
*Readers are advised not to take this advice literally.
Maddie De Soyza
Sources used: www.healthline.com
