Alcohol. Cigarettes. Chocolate.
The Infographics Show. And…Taxidermy? People are addicted to all sorts
of things, but some are pretty bizarre - bizarre enough to spawn a long-running TV
series named “My Strange Addiction”. These are some of the weirdest things
people have ever been addicted to. One of the strangest addictions is a surprisingly
common one - Pica. This is the bizarre compulsion to eat things that aren’t food. Some people are
fixated on a specific object, like the woman on My Strange Addiction who couldn’t stop drinking warm
paint. Others chew their hair relentlessly. But some just eat whatever they can get their hands
on - which, naturally, can lead to serious medical issues as the body wasn’t meant to digest things
like rocks, buttons, and screws. Some severe pica sufferers have needed surgery, with one patient’s
stomach containing a shocking 1,446 items. It’s most commonly seen in pregnant women and people
with other mental or developmental disorders. A related disorder is less
harmful - but no less strange. Have you ever picked up an ice cube from an
empty cup of soda and sucked on it or chewed it? It’s an odd feeling, and one most people
don’t want to repeat too often - unless they have Pagophagia. These people are
obsessed with eating and chewing ice. While this isn’t as dangerous as Pica due
to the ice just dissolving into water, it can be a sign of iron or zinc deficiency.
While people can live with this condition without harming their digestive system, the same
can’t be said for their mouths - chewing ice can result in broken or damaged teeth, and the
hard and cold substance can cause gum injuries. But some addictions can be
too much of a good thing. The famous addiction show profiled a
fifty-five-year-old man named Tom who had decided to get fit - really fit. He got into cycling and
soon escalated his exercise routine to six hours on his bike a day. Getting healthy, right? Not so
much - his doctor warned him that he was putting too much wear and tear on his body and could be
putting himself at risk for a heart attack if he continued to overexert himself. What drives an
older person to break down their body with extreme exercise? Maybe fear of mortality - in which
case, he could be bringing on what he fears most. It’s not the only way exercise can backfire. One of the only celebrities to appear on My
Strange Addiction, Lauren Powers was a model and fitness guru who got into bodybuilding as she
got older - even winning amateur bodybuilding competitions. But she took it way too far,
working out up to thirty-six hours a week. To ensure her body could stand up to the pressure,
she became addicted to supplements and injections of human growth hormone - the controversial drug
that gets athletes kicked out of their sports. While she beat an earlier
substance abuse addiction, the powerhouse motivational speaker seemed
to have replaced one addiction with another. And some health regimens can
have even worse consequences. A woman named Kimberly was worried
about her weight as a college student, so she turned to a shortcut - taking laxatives
to help her food go through her body quicker. It took off the pounds - but
kick-started a terrible addiction, to the point where she now takes hundreds of
laxatives a day. It wreaked havoc on her body, causing ulcers and malnutrition due to the abuse
on her digestive system. Laxative abuse is common among people with eating disorders, but few take
it to this extreme without endangering their life. How far would you go to get that perfect look? When most people think about tanning, they
think about relaxing at the beach. But that isn’t really an option for many people- and
that’s where tanning booths come in. These artificial sun lamps can give you the bronzed look
you’re searching for - but they also wreak havoc on the skin and can increase the risk of cancer.
While a few sessions before a vacation won’t cause any long-term damage, some people become addicted.
Not only are they searching for the perfect shade, but the ultraviolet rays of a tanning booth can
release endorphins - which make people feel good. The combo leads to some people paying a visit to
the tanning booth far more often than is healthy. And that’s not the only change
people make to their bodies. Cosmetic surgery is becoming an increasingly
common decision - usually, people have surgery to fix a feature they never liked, like
their nose; or tighten up some areas that are sagging with age. But some people just
can’t get enough. Estimates are that up to ten percent of the people who have plastic
surgery become addicted, and many take it too far - winding up with their face looking
unnatural or suffering medical complications. Doctors are starting to recognize this as a
disorder in its own right - body dysmorphic disorder, where people become obsessed with
their appearance and see exaggerated flaws. And some people go for more…colorful changes. Kids often want to make their first
body modifications pretty young. Sure, little girls getting their ears pierced
is pretty common, but mom is likely to shut down a nose ring and tattoos are out of the question.
Maybe mom was worried that once they get started, they’ll never stop. Some people get a high of
endorphins when they get a new tattoo or piercing, and keep coming back until
they’re more canvas than person. Some people have dozens of piercings or more all
over their face, or even tattoo their entire body. While not all of these people are addicts,
doctors get worried when the desire for more and crazier modifications starts to change
from artistic expression to self-mutilation. And sometimes, people’s idea of
what’s good for them is just…nuts. A person indulges in a nice refreshing drink of…human blood? No, this isn’t a fictional vampire
- it’s a woman named Julia Caples who wants to live the life of one. She claims to feel stronger
and healthier after feeding off human plasma, but at least she’s not sneaking into people’s
homes in the dead of night. Caples, who is part of a community of fellow wannabe vampires, uses a
ritual knife to take blood from consenting donors. She drinks up to a half gallon of blood a month,
a little every day, and claims to have craved it since she was a little girl. But doctors warn
that not only is there no nutrition in consuming human blood, but it could expose Caples to any
diseases that are in her donor’s bloodstream. You probably know a few people with this next
addiction - but did you know it has a name? Oniomania sounds like a serious medical condition,
but it’s actually just the clinical name for being a shopaholic. While it’s easy to joke
about that girl you know being one because she seems to have a new purse every month,
actual shopaholics struggle to stay afloat. Many find themselves spending any money they
have for that high they get from purchasing, landing themselves in serious debt and
hiding their addiction from their families. And there are enough people fighting this battle
that support groups are readily available for it. And some people are addicted to
a very specific type of purchase. Literature fans are used to this - they have a
house full of books, many of which they haven’t read, but they can’t stop buying! They’ll
read this new book on vacation - any day now. An addiction to buying books is so common that
it even has its own name - bibliomania - and it’s usually harmless except for making
it harder to navigate around the house. But in extreme cases, people fill their
house with every book they find - often multiple copies of the same book. And when
he ran out of money to fill his addiction, Iowa man Stephen Blumberg stole a staggering
23,000 books - worth over five million dollars. It’s not the only hobby that can have
serious consequences when it goes too far. Your mom probably thinks you’re a video game
addict, given all the times she had to call you downstairs for dinner. But this is becoming
more common - especially with the increase in open-ended video games that never actually have a
natural stopping point. When your dad was fighting the good fight against Bowser, the game eventually
ended and the credits rolled - which was the perfect time to do his homework. Now, video
games encourage both ongoing play and ongoing spending on microtransactions. Video game addicts
have spent thousands of dollars they don’t have on in-game items, and that’s far from the most
extreme. Gamers playing marathons have refused to get up to eat, drink, or sleep - which has led
to collapses, medical conditions, and even death. Sometimes, addictions start
the minute you’re born. Amy and Becky, two identical twin
sisters profiled on My Strange Addiction, were obsessed with looking and acting alike. They
wore the same clothing, did the same activities, and even made sure they were always eating the
same amount of food down to the ounce - so one of them would never go up a clothing size
over the other! It sounds like a cute way for little girls to enjoy being twins -
except that Amy and Becky were forty-four years old at the time the show aired!
They had spent so much time working to be identical well into adulthood that neither
of them knew how to live without the other. Family can drive people to strange behaviors. My Strange Addiction profiled a
woman named Casie who had recently lost her husband Shawn. Shawn had been
cremated so Casie could take him home with her - but she had taken that a little too
far. She wouldn’t go anywhere without the urn, even taking it out shopping with her. When her
family tried to stage an intervention, they discovered her shocking secret - she had begun
eating his ashes as a way to be closer to him. While cremation ashes are sterile and not
dangerous, it was clear that Casie’s grief over the loss of her husband had developed into
a bizarre addiction that was only escalating. She’s not the only person who has
unusual methods of dealing with death. Barbara, another woman profiled on the show,
suffered several tragic losses in her life. That led her to become obsessed with death and
what comes next - to the point where she spends most of her time in the cemetery. Rather than
fearing death, she believes that she’s counting down to being reunited with everyone she’s
lost and relates more to the dead than to the living. When she’s not in the cemetery,
she’s obsessively planning all the details of her own funeral - including writing her own
funeral in advance. While self-planned funerals are becoming more common, few people treat
it like an event they’re looking forward to. And one man took this fixation
with death even further. In one town in Brazil, funerals have a
constant presence. A man named Luis Squarisi attended the funeral of his father in 1983,
and then…never stopped. He’s attended every funeral in his town for over three decades and
says that the first thing he does every morning is to check the obituaries. He even calls
the hospital to find out about recent deaths. Squarisi is known all around town by the funeral
directors, and it’s rare for any family members to object to his presence at the funerals - even
if he’s never met the deceased. An odd obsession, but one he seems likely to continue - until he
attends one final funeral as the guest of honor. The desire for companionship
does odd things to people. Debbie is one of many cat lovers in the world
- but she takes it a little further than some. She has twelve cats and began collecting
them since her husband’s death. She centers her life around them
and is willing to do anything for them - including cause herself physical harm
because Debbie is severely allergic to cats. She makes do with allergy medication and
suffers through her symptoms, despite the fact that her doctors have told her that her feline
obsession is a danger to her overall health. Cats, sure, but rats? Theresa, another My Strange Addiction fan
favorite, had a unique choice in pets - hairless rats, fifty-two of them. Her entire apartment is
full of cages containing her not-furry friends, and she had to quit her job to keep up with
feeding the rats and cleaning their cages. This has even led to her becoming estranged from her
daughter, who was disgusted by what her mother’s home was becoming. Unlike many of the other people
who use their addictions as a coping mechanism for being alone, Theresa does have a family - at least
until her daughter reaches her breaking point. A common cause for addictions is the search
for comfort - but that can go way too far. Another episode profiled Krista, a loving
mother of twelve - but her “children” were all stuffed teddy bears. It’s common for a
child to get attached to a stuffed animal, but pretty rare for that to continue into
adulthood, and Krista’s obsession had only deepened. She had given each of them their own
names and personalities and spent much of each day taking care of them - including a nightly bedtime
ritual. Despite this, she managed to get into a relationship with a non-ursine man - but he was
increasingly frustrated by the fact that she spent more time talking to the bears than to him. But
if you asked Krista, she didn’t have a problem. For some people, those childhood
obsessions never go away. It’s common for children to carry around
comfort objects, and separating from them can be a hassle - as any parent who has tried
to wash that favorite blanket has found out. While this usually fades away as kids get older,
people who experience trauma can often develop a stronger fixation on an object that soothes them.
Whatever caused her fixation, Tamara from My Strange Addiction was still carrying her childhood
pillow - named Boo - around wherever she went as an adult. This included toting it along with
her in her shopping cart in the grocery store. While less disruptive than some addictions,
it was sure to cause some odd stares - to say nothing of the awkwardness if
she had to go to a furniture store. But some obsessions with objects
take a more bizarre turn. It’s not rare for guys to get a little too
obsessed with their car. Maybe they get paranoid about anyone eating or drinking in it, spend way
too much time buffing it, and even give it a name. But that’s nothing compared to Nathaniel,
who not only named his car Chase, but seems to believe he’s dating the automobile.
He hasn’t been in any other relationship due to his commitment to the car and even takes the car
out on dates as part of a romantic relationship. He should probably hope the local drive-in
doesn’t close, or things could get awkward. Some addictions, though, can
be more physically harmful. Keeping yourself groomed is important, but it’s
easy to let it go when you’re too stressed or busy. Suddenly your fingernails are way too long
and it’s time for a clipping. But Jazz, one of the strangest cases profiled on the show, had
been obsessively growing her fingernails out for twenty-two years without clipping them. One of her
nails was two feet long, and her bizarre feature was making it hard to do basic tasks like brushing
her teeth or tying her shoes. Her addiction was hurting her quality of life, but she seemed
terrified to even consider using a nail clipper. Sometimes, it takes serious physical
consequences before people make a change. No one really likes the smell of gasoline,
do they? It’s certainly not pleasant when you fill up the gas tank. However, a woman named
Theresa has been spending thirty years obsessively smelling gasoline. Not only does she sniff it
whenever she gets the opportunity, but she has taken to carrying a water bottle filled with the
thick liquid on her at all times - pulling it out for a sniff every ten minutes and getting
up in the middle of the night for a fix. This has had a terrible impact on her
health, including memory issues and anemia, and her family contacted the show hoping
to get her help before it was too late. Sometimes, a seemingly harmless
habit can take an extreme turn. Rock-collecting is one of the safest hobbies
around - although it can certainly kill a conversation once you pull out the collection
for guests. But no activity is harmless when someone is obsessively addicted, as My Strange
Addiction showed about a woman named Belinda. Not only did she spend an excessive amount
of time hunting for the perfect rock, but every time she was rock-hunting she fell into
a trancelike state. She would lose track of time, disappear for hours, and would even wander into
dangerous areas to find a rock that spoke to her. And even recommended habits
can get out of control. Keeping the home clean isn’t something most
people look forward to, and they try to get it over with as quickly as possible. Cyntrelle,
though, finds that keeping her home clean consumes her life - she spends up to eight hours a day
scrubbing and polishing the home. By the time it’s clean to her satisfaction, she’s usually exhausted
and has no time for anything else in her life. Making it worse, she loses her temper any
time someone in the household leaves an area that isn’t clean to her satisfaction.
She is obviously addicted to cleaning, but compulsions to clean are also affiliated
with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which can lead people to believe that their welfare
depends on completing simple, repetitive tasks. Some addictions are just plain gross. It’s not something anyone looks forward to after
taking a shower - cleaning the drain of all that nasty hair that builds up. But in one of the
most memorable episodes of My Strange Addiction, a man named Evan suffering from anxiety found
that this gross ritual was the only thing that relieved his tension. Not only did he look
forward to doing it every time he showered, but he started doing it in social situations
- whenever he was in a new person’s home, he would sneak away to their bathroom
and clean their shower drain for them. Certainly odd, but maybe it’s
a win-win for the homeowner? And sometimes, common addictions
get taken to the next level. Whether you’re an early riser or a
fat orange cat who hates Mondays, a lot of people can’t get the morning started
without a cup of coffee. Like all substances, the more people consume caffeine, the more
it takes to have an effect. A Florida couple, Mike and Trina, found a shocking way around these
diminishing returns - they started taking their coffee up the other end. They give each other
coffee enemas, spend several hours each day absorbing coffee - and swear they’ll never go back
to drinking it. While Trina even claimed that this bizarre treatment helped her gastric issues,
most people will probably stick to Dunkin’. One man may either be a highly unusual
addict - or a very good con artist. Roger Tullgren, like many other people,
is a huge fan of heavy metal music. But the Swedish man took his obsession a
little further than most, being obsessed with attending concerts to the exclusion
of just about every other part of his life. He couldn’t keep a job, so he took an unusual
approach to make ends meet. Instead of seeking therapy for his heavy metal addiction, he applied
to the Swedish government to classify it as a disability so he could get benefits - and they
agreed! With a monthly check coming his way, Tullgren was now free to spend all the time he
wanted at concerts - but it seemed the novelty may have worn off because by 2012 he was back at
work part-time. Probably better for his hearing. But what drives people to
addictions that can kill them? While pica can have serious physical
consequences, it usually doesn’t rise to the level of hyalophagia - a disorder where people
are specifically obsessed with eating glass. Given that tricking people into eating glass
is a common murder method in prison dramas, it doesn’t take much to see why this is a bad
idea. One rogue shard can pierce someone’s stomach. My Strange Addiction profiled a man named
Josh who liked to bite into champagne glasses and light bulbs, and while he disregarded
the risk to his life from this behavior, he also seemed to relish the attention
it brought him as a daredevil performer. When people think “Comfort object”, they
usually don’t think “burns and electrocution”. A woman named Lori has been sleeping with
her blow dryer since she was eight years old, which would be odd but safe - except that she
keeps it running during the night as she sleeps, enjoying the noise and the warmth coming
from it. Naturally, this was one of the most dangerous addictions ever profiled on
My Strange Addiction, because at any time the dryer could severely burn her or start an
electrical fire. But by the time the show aired, she had been doing it for so long that she
refused to even go a night without it - and the years of conditioning might have made it extremely
challenging to go to sleep without its presence. Two people developed an obsession that
was both unsanitary and disturbing. It’s always a sad sight to see while driving
down the road - some unfortunate animals who weren’t quite fast enough while crossing. Most
people keep on driving and maybe say a prayer, but one man took his compassion a little too far.
In season three, My Strange Addiction followed a man who collected roadkill and gave them proper
burials. But that was nothing compared to Divya, a young woman who was so obsessed with taxidermy
that she spent much of her free time searching the roadways for dead animals. She would
bring them home and stuff them, creating an elaborate collection of preserved animals -
much to the worries of her friends and family, who were worried that the constant contact with
roadkill might expose her to deadly parasites. And then there’s one man who took
celebrity worship way too far. When people think of Justin Bieber fans, they
usually think of teenage girls screaming at his concerts. But one German songwriter may have been
the biggest fan of all. Tobias Sheldon didn’t just enjoy Bieber’s music, he wanted to be the younger
pop star - and spent over $100,000 on plastic surgery to transform himself into a double of the
Canadian singer. The results were…mixed, as the fact that he appeared on both My Strange Addiction
and the plastic surgery show “Botched” indicates. Sadly, Sheldon’s Bieber obsession led him down a
bad path that eventually led to his 2015 death. But one of the most common addictions may
be one you have without even knowing it. How many hours have you spent aimlessly scrolling
social media? You don’t even enjoy it - all the news is so depressing. It’s even gained a name
- doomscrolling. Yet you and millions of others may actually be addicted to social media. The
big sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all encourage endless scrolling, and many people
find it taking up an abnormal amount of their day. Like online gambling and video games, social
media addiction is one of the newer types - and addiction specialists are scrambling to
figure out the best way to help people kick the habit. But My Strange Addiction has
been off the air for more than half a decade, so no documentary crew is coming your way to
follow you as you yell at random Twitter accounts. Addicted to The Infographics Show? Feed that urge
by watching “What Is Sex Addiction”, or check out “Why Are You So Addicted to Your Smartphone?”
for more on how these devices get in your head.
