Woman suffering from bizarre disorder eats 4,000 washing-up sponges and 100 bars of soap

Yeah, OP, I have seen other people on tv with this so called "new" disorder one even was eating the stuffing from a couch.

Personally though I really question whether "Pica" even exists; not saying these people are not having mental issues, just questioning whether it's a real seperate disorder of simply a variant manifestation of another existing disorder.

I mean to me it seems like they are having compulsive irrational thoughts and urges, and their irrational thoughts and urges may be to eat stuff that is not really edible, but is that really a something separate from OCD or just a different variation of it.

The reason I ask is it seems like psychology is going overboard in creating new disorders instead of properly using the ones they already have. I mean there are people that think they are the anti christ, some that think they are Jesus and others who think they are napoleon etc. So, does psychology break each of those down into separate disorders or just have one disorder covering all people who believe they are dead famous people or fantastical people?

The thing is even though they are eating non edible stuff it still seems like they are just suffering from compulsive irrational thoughts, just like OCD and it really doesn't need it's on classification as a separate disorder.

Also, no offense to people that suffer from eating disorders, but I find them to be a bit vain, you don't really see people in starving nations obsessing over food and developing such mental disorders as in westernized nations. The whole thing is sad really.

Anyway just my opinion.

reply to post by PhoenixOD
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Wonder how many times her mother threatened to wash her mouth out with soap.....rofl.

After reading this I don't feel so bad about chewing my nails.

Or the occasional pencil eraser.

Heck, I may have even nibbled a sponge in my time. Hard to say for sure.

When my daughter was about 10 months old we discovered she'd stuck bits of sponge up her nose. It was the smell that led us to it. It had started to rot or get infected or something. We had to pin her down and pull the bits of sponge out with tweezers. It was like holding down Linda Blair from the Exorcist, she fought like hell.