Borderline Personality Disorder,  Self-Injury

Woman Eats 78 Forks and Spoons

Woman Eats 78 Forks and Spoons

Updated: Saturday, 31 Oct 2009, 1:37 PM EDT
Published : Saturday, 31 Oct 2009, 1:35 PM EDT

By MIKE BRODY

(MYFOX NATIONAL) – A woman obsessed with eating cutlery had to have surgery to remove 78 forks and spoons from her stomach, the Daily Mail reports .

Margaret Daalman, 52, went to the hospital in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, complaining of stomach pains. Doctors were stunned when X-ray’s of Dallman’s stomach (see pictures of the X-rays) revealed several pieces of silverware.

Dallman was rushed into surgery where doctors intricately removed all of the cutlery.

“She seems to have been suffering from some sort of obsession and every time she sat down for a meal she would ignore the food and eat the cutlery,” said one of the doctors who treated Daalman.

The images were actually taken about 30 years ago, but they were published for the first time last week in a Dutch medical magazine. The magazine had asked for readers to send in examples of strange medical tales, and a doctor at the hospital sent in Daalman’s story.

Dallman was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder that left her with an urge to eat forks and spoons. She never ate knives, however, and the doctors don’t know why.

She has reportedly made a full recovery and is said to be responding well to the therapy she was receiving for the disorder.

The ingestion of foreign objects, considered a form of self-harm, is a little-discussed type of disorder that is difficult for physicians to diagnose, according to Psychiatry Online .

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