Koren Zailckas said she began drinking when she was only 14 years old. She used alcohol as a coping mechanism for growing up in a troubled home.

“(Drinking) was an expression of my unhappiness,” Zailckas said.

Zailckas, an author and Syracuse University alumna, was hosted by Delta Delta Delta in cooperation with Alpha Phi, Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Sigma Sigma to speak Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Goldstein Auditorium.

Zailckas spoke to a group of mainly Greek-affiliated women as apart of Hazing Prevention Week.

She wrote her first book, “Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood,” about her experiences with alcoholism before and during her time at SU.

While Zailckas did not mention hazing, she did touch on other noteworthy college issues — including binge drinking and assault.

The alumna described the idea of drinking as an “escape,” both mentally and literally, because she would sneak off to parties as a teen to get drunk.

At age 16, Zailckas said she hit a breaking point when she woke up in her childhood bedroom wearing a hospital bracelet. The night before, she was brought to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.

Zailckas cut out drinking until she was a freshman at SU, where she found it almost impossible to have any confidence without drinking at parties.

“I used alcohol to ease me through social situations where I didn’t know anyone,” Zailckas said. “… I did not know how to express romantic interest in a guy I liked without slurring sweet nothings in his ear.”

She spoke about her experience in Greek life. Zailckas was a member of one of SU’s sororities that still operates today. Although she spoke of her sorority experience as a generally positive one, Zailckas said she intentionally sought out girls in her house who could hold their alcohol better than she did so she could deflect her own drunkenness.

The author developed what she called a “work hard, play hard” attitude to deny her problems with alcohol.

The lecture took an even more personal turn when Zailckas spoke about being assaulted twice, the first time at age 19 after waking up naked in a campus fraternity house.

She categorized her two assaulters: One as “the recruiter” and the other as “the ambusher.”

The ambusher is “the guy who says, ‘why did you even come here if we weren’t going to take things this far?’” while the recruiter is “the guy who takes advantage of someone who is too far gone to give them consent,” Zailckas said.

Ninety percent of sexual assault on college campuses involve alcohol, according to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. Every year more than 600,000 students from ages 18 to 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.

Zailckas talked of finding solace in therapy, which she described as “the language of kindness,” as well as in extracurricular activities.

“Instead of using alcohol to erase memories … I created new ones with friends,” Zailckas said.

She said she was inspired to write “Smashed” after she felt an article written in Time magazine had falsely depicted women’s excessive drinking as a part of self-empowerment.

The memoir topped The New York Times Best Seller list for more than 10 weeks after its release in 2005. Zailckas was 25 years old at the time.

Published on September 21, 2016 at 12:11 am

Contact: hsmalach@syr.edu