One form of treatment is what he calls "motivational interviewing: stressing the negative future consequences of not finishing and explaining that once the task is through, they'll feel a sense of calm and relief, " he says.

WSJ: Anxiety Can Bring Out the Best

Unlike any of the 19 other competitors, whose style rarely deviated from the conventional method of starting at one end and finishing at the other, Mr Kobayashi brought a sense of industrial efficiency to the task.

ECONOMIST: It takes guts to eat 50? of Nathan's famous hot dogs