Have you ever seen the TV show My Strange Addiction? I’m not sure what time and channel it comes on but I know it is available through Netflix - which is where I was fortunate (?) enough to stumble upon this jewel. The title pretty much sums it up - it’s a show about people who are addicted to strange things. What type of strange things you may ask? Well, let me tell you. There was a guy who ate light bulbs. There was one woman who was addicted to eating the foam out of couch cushions. Another one ate cat hair (and sometimes licked it straight off of the cat). Another ate AJAX house cleaner…actually, that stuff must be tasty because I think there were two who had a fancy for it. One ate drywall. And another even consumed the ashes of her deceased husband. And my personal favorite, the man who would sneak into people’s bathrooms and eat hair straight from the shower drain. And the really bizarre thing is that throughout the course of the show, most of these people refuse to see that their weirdo tendencies are actually problems. Most think their behavior is completely rational and acceptable.
The body and mind have a very strange connection.
Once the show’s psychologists delve deeper into the psyche of these people, they discover some sort of emotional trigger or connection that led them to begin their weird behavior patterns. In times of extreme stress or trauma, they didn’t know where to turn and so they found ways to self-soothe and medicate themselves. Eventually their bodies became physically dependent on those behaviors in order to feel good. And once the body becomes addicted to something, it is very easy to fool the mind into thinking that things are ok…perpetuating the addiction even more.
As it stands, I don’t eat couches. BUT, I have fooled myself into thinking that it‘s acceptable to eat five pieces of pizza. I trick myself into thinking that a salad with fried chicken, bacon, cheese, croutons, and extra bleu cheese dressing on it is a healthy option. It’s OK if I go to Taco Bell at 11 PM for their self proclaimed “4th meal” and eat a Nachos Bell Grande and a soft taco supreme before bed. I can drink 64 oz. of Diet Coke a day but can’t seem to find time to drink any water. Two bowls of cereal? No problem. Super sized fries from McDonalds? Why not? Dessert after every meal? A necessity.
Hmm. I wonder why I have a weight problem? It must be my glands.
Denying myself things that I enjoy (and on some level MAY have an actual addiction to) is not pleasant. It’s not going to be easy at first and it’s not going to be something that I ever WANT to do. But if I want to reap all of the benefits of being a healthy person, I have a choice to make. I can stop putting garbage into my body every day and live a longer and more comfortable life OR I can continue deceiving myself and pretend that the choices that I make today aren’t going to affect me down the road.
How many calories do you think are in a sheet of drywall?
The body and mind have a very strange connection.
Once the show’s psychologists delve deeper into the psyche of these people, they discover some sort of emotional trigger or connection that led them to begin their weird behavior patterns. In times of extreme stress or trauma, they didn’t know where to turn and so they found ways to self-soothe and medicate themselves. Eventually their bodies became physically dependent on those behaviors in order to feel good. And once the body becomes addicted to something, it is very easy to fool the mind into thinking that things are ok…perpetuating the addiction even more.
As it stands, I don’t eat couches. BUT, I have fooled myself into thinking that it‘s acceptable to eat five pieces of pizza. I trick myself into thinking that a salad with fried chicken, bacon, cheese, croutons, and extra bleu cheese dressing on it is a healthy option. It’s OK if I go to Taco Bell at 11 PM for their self proclaimed “4th meal” and eat a Nachos Bell Grande and a soft taco supreme before bed. I can drink 64 oz. of Diet Coke a day but can’t seem to find time to drink any water. Two bowls of cereal? No problem. Super sized fries from McDonalds? Why not? Dessert after every meal? A necessity.
Hmm. I wonder why I have a weight problem? It must be my glands.
Denying myself things that I enjoy (and on some level MAY have an actual addiction to) is not pleasant. It’s not going to be easy at first and it’s not going to be something that I ever WANT to do. But if I want to reap all of the benefits of being a healthy person, I have a choice to make. I can stop putting garbage into my body every day and live a longer and more comfortable life OR I can continue deceiving myself and pretend that the choices that I make today aren’t going to affect me down the road.
How many calories do you think are in a sheet of drywall?
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