they need to learn to do. A meal that drags on and on - particularly a buffet or a meal taken in the homes of alcoholics who are inevitably more interested in the drink than in the food - can be very challenging for sufferers from eating disorders.

Alcohol is itself a refined carbohydrate and therefore should be avoided by sufferers from eating disorders. They may not have a risk of drinking progressively more alcohol, as would happen in an alcoholic, but there will be a risk of stimulating the desire to binge on food. The converse - suggesting to alcoholics that they should give up sugar and white flour - would not apply unless they coincidentally also have an eating disorder. People with any form of neurotransmission disease need to give up only those substances and processes that come within the particular group (hedonistic, nurturant of self, or compulsive helping and relationship addiction) from which they themselves suffer. On this basis sufferers from eating disorders might be able to use recreational drugs safely but we would not recommend that they should try to do so. Nicotine and caffeine are both frequently used as appetite suppressants by sufferers from eating disorders and are therefore probably dangerous for them. Compulsive helpers and relationship addicts, who have no other addictive tendency whatever, might be able to get away with using all sorts of addictive substances and processes, just as people who have no addictive tendency whatever can drink alcohol perfectly safely and may well be able to use other addictive substances and processes without the same risks as are run by people who have neurotransmission disease. These people may get damaged from being stupid - such as when driving while drunk - but they will be less inclined to do it again and again, as would be the case with people who have an addictive nature because of their neurotransmission disease. The problem is that people who do have neurotransmission disease are commonly determined to demonstrate that they have not got it. They can cause themselves great damage in the years during which they try to avoid facing up to their personal reality in this respect.

Conversely, people who do not have neurotransmission disease may be able to use mood-altering substances sensibly but it is bizarre that they should ever want to do so. There is no law that says one has to drink or smoke in order to be happy. There is certainly no law that says that recreational drugs are an essential part of a stimulating life. For addicts to use these substances, in order to keep themselves alive rather than submit to their suicidal depression, is one thing but for the normal population to use them when they have no inner psychological craving to do so is crazy and it provides sad evidence of the poverty of a human spirit that knows no better stimulus. To believe that happiness comes from a bottle or tablet or other substance is spiritual poverty indeed. In this respect sufferers from eating disorders can be just as stupid as anyone else and they need to examine the whole range of their behaviour, whether it be addictive or otherwise. There is no point in doing all the work that is necessary to get into recovery from an eating disorder only to spoil the end result by allowing oneself to be sucked into the mad behaviour of a philosophically inadequate society.