Nine point one per cent of adults in England now screen positive for a possible eating disorder. That's around four point two million people, up from six point four per cent in 2007, and among sixteen to twenty-four year olds it's one in five. Separately, a BMJ analysis pooling 281 studies across 36 countries found that around fourteen per cent of adults show signs of ultra-processed food addiction, the same rate as alcohol addiction. So when a medication quiets the voice that's been arguing with you since you were a teenager, what has actually just happened in your brain? And what happens when it comes back? In this episode I'm joined by Dr David McLaughlan, a Maudsley-trained consultant psychiatrist and one of the UK's leading voices on addiction. David is a visiting consultant at Priory Hospital Roehampton, UK Clinical Director at the Clean Slate Clinic, and Academic Secretary of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Addictions Faculty. He co-founded and leads Curb, a digital therapeutic for people who want to change their relationship with alcohol, built on three years of Innovate UK-funded research and published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open. He's also a three-time British Masters swimming gold medallist. We talk about what food noise actually is, psychologically and neurologically, and why it going quiet for the first time in adult life can feel emotional rather than just convenient. We ask whether food addiction holds up as a framing to an addiction psychiatrist, how the H.A.L.T. technique (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) can interrupt an urge in the moment, and what we actually know about people on GLP-1 medications drinking less. David explains what happens when food was doing a job, soothing, numbing or rewarding, and the medication takes it away, what his research on relapse tells us about how change really happens, the psychological work worth doing while the medication does its work, and how someone who spent thirty years believing their weight was a willpower failure can make peace with it. About Clean Slate Clinic David is UK Clinical Director at Clean Slate Clinic, a certified social enterprise and member of Social Enterprise UK that helps people change their relationship with alcohol. It runs a doctor-led alcohol detox programme you can do safely at home, with daily clinical check-ins through detox week, followed by ongoing aftercare and recovery support for the rest of the year. The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission. Social enterprises put their mission first, and they rely on people hearing about them. If anything in this episode struck a chord, for you or for someone you love, have a look at what they do and give them a follow. 🌐 Website: https://cleanslateclinic.co.uk 📸 Instagram: @cleanslateclinic 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cleanslateclinic 📞 Phone: 0203 835 4705 🎙 Hosted by: Marc McKee 📍 Featuring: Dr David McLaughlan, consultant psychiatrist and co-founder of Curb Connect with Dr David McLaughlan 📸 Instagram: @drdavidmclaughlan 📲 Contact: info@offdutydoctor.com 🔗 Clean Slate Clinic: https://cleanslateclinic.co.uk/ 🏥 Priory Hospital Roehampton: https://www.priorygroup.com/consultants/dr-david-mclaughlan Connect with Marc 📲 TikTok: @my.journey.with.marc 📸 Instagram: @my.journey.with.marc 📺 YouTube: @myjourneywithmarc 🎧 Podcast Instagram: @this.is.my.journey.podcast 🎧 Podcast: https://www.myjourneywithmarc.com/podcast Sources NHS England Digital, Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/24, Chapter 13, published 27 November 2025. Gearhardt AN et al., "Social, clinical, and policy implications of ultra-processed food addiction", The BMJ, 9 October 2023.
