COMPULSIVE EATING

I was recently asked to see a woman suffering from compulsive eating, a problem of sufficient severity to warrant admission to a mental hospital. Frequently the clinical psychologist learns a great deal about normal behaviour by studying the abnormal and Mrs. M's irresistible compulsion to eat was no exception. In brief, her eating tended to be triggered, or at least strongly influenced, by food and mood cues rather than hunger pangs and eating plans. She could not sit in a room with a bar of chocolate for any length of time without devouring it whole, and she could only rarely eat one Black Magic without consuming the whole box. In common with the obsessive‐compulsive, the alcoholic, smoker and compulsive gambler, she found that in certain moods and when exposed to certain cues she had little or no control over her behaviour and was compelled to relinquish her long‐term goals in favour of short‐term gratification. The severity of Mrs. M's compulsive urges demonstrated, in exaggerated form, the loss of control phenomenon which is experienced by every struggling slimmer and is a regrettable feature of the human predicament.