As the title says, I most likely have PICA which is an eating disorder that causes me to eat things that are usually not considered food. It can be because of the texture or taste but for me it's mostly texture. (I DO NOT RECOMMEND CONSUMING ANY OF THE THINGS I HAVE EATEN AS IT MIGHT BE HARMFUL FOR YOUR BODY! DO NOT CONSUME THE THINGS THAT I HAVE! EVEN IF IT'S IN SMALL DOSES).
What things have you eaten? What is your favorite?
Styrofoam, soap (the blocks of soap), small pieces of my bed mattress, pencils, wood, metal (only chewed on it but never ate it), books, toilet paper, paper that you draw on, plastic (chewed on it but I don't think I ever ate it), those little stickers that are put on fruits in the store and I ate it once but it tasted pretty bad because of the glue and also because it got stuck to the back of my throat eugh, my nails (tasted ok, but it hurt swallowing the nails), nail polish, nail polish remover (small amounts), candle wax (small amounts). My all time favourite is nail polish remover. It's the smell, the taste, the stinging on the tongue, I LOVE it. But I haven't bought nail polish remover in a long time because I know that I can't stop myself from consuming it and I want to stop myself from doing that but it's so hard sometimes when I do buy it, but I haven't had nail polish remover in a long time so I'm proud of myself. And also I really like toilet paper, the taste of metal and certain types of books but the cover of the books are pretty...meh...not bad but not good either. And my least favourites have to be candle wax (🤮🤮🤮), those small stickers on fruits, nail polish (🤮) and soap.
Damn I’m so sorry I thought I was bad eating soil and non edible leafs 😹
i ate my own hair and i thought that was pretty bad. my mom had to show my pics of peoples stomachs after doing that to get me to stop
I remember when I ate a leaf once that tasted BAD 💔 grass tastes a bit better not gonna lie
I think I ate an ant and tasted mud one time as a kid. I was an interesting kid.
I still remember the taste...
Ants taste like vinegar.
It’s true 😫
I have a memory of eating soap and only using it if I "liked" the taste, not sure how long I actually did that, but yeah it's gross. And later on I've eaten clay/dirt, turned it I had a slight iron deficiency, but I still kinda like it just don't feel the urge anymore. I'm pretty sure nail polish remover is extremely toxic. Did you ever get (seriously) ill from eating any of the inedible stuff you've eaten?
I never got seriously Ill. I think I ate clay before, the texture is good and the taste is good too (don't recommend eating it😓)
Thank you for your vulnerability!
Oh and I also remembered that I tried lip balm and hair conditioner (the hair conditioner smelled and tasted so good, it had a creamy texture and it smelled like bananas. I loved it, but I still don't recommend eating it because it's not safe to consume).
I appreciate your honesty and also providing the warnings!
I work with a kid that will eat ANYTHING. How can I help them? The other kids are mean and disgusted. She could get sick. I'm not sure if she has PICA but it seems that way and I feel so lost. Any insights?
I think you should tell the parents/legal guardian of the kid what's going on immediately and inform them that it could be pica or something else. I'm not sure how to stop the kid from eating the non edible stuff but I think that you should give the other children a lesson on why bullying is bad and that if they see something that is concerning they should report it to an adult instead of being rude and judging someone. I think that if you see the kid eating the non edible stuff you should give them normal food to eat and if it doesn't work try researching other methods on how to stop it.
Unfortunately my job is to drive the bus safely above all else. There is no eating allowed per DOT and I cannot and will not make an exception there. SPED would perhaps accommodate that, but I can't. I can do a write up for the purpose of informing the school so they can better accommodate her and of course I tell kids not to be mean but it is naturally gross to see someone pick things up off a dirty floor and eat them. (Not trying to be rude but I have all types on the bus and a lot of what I say is in one ear and right back out the other!)
I understand and I'm sorry :( I think you should do a write up for the school for the purpose of informing the school so they help her. I hope everything turns out okay
ASD momma here.
Have you addressed the admin from any level of the school that’s on your route doing the bullying?
Any idea if maybe the kid is malnourished and eating things she shouldn't because she's hungry and doesn't have access to food outside of school?
My district provides free breakfast and lunches! Kiddo always goes in for breakfast and the whole family appears to eat enough, though I have no idea if she has deficiencies.
What do you regret eating most?
Soap because it tastes horrible, I ate it because of the urge and because it looked SO good (I knew it wouldn't taste good but I did it anyway lmao. So I just manipulated myself into believing it would taste good even though I knew it wouldn't, It was a big chunk that I took too). I heard stories of parents putting soap in their kids mouths and I as someone who had tried eating soap before, I just thought to myself "why don't these people try eating soap themselves and see how their kids feel !?". And nail polish (it tastes horrible, but I noticed that not all nail polish tastes the same, the ones that taste the worst are the ones that haven't been opened in a few years). And lip balm too, because of the texture but the taste was good, I think it was In a box with a barbie doll and it tasted EXACTLY how I expected it to taste like, for the first few minutes of chewing it, it tasted good but the texture made it weird. It tasted like a certain type of candy I haven't had in a long time.
I ate my fair share of lip balm as a kid lol! They make all those food and soda flavors. What almost got me once when I was little was scented nail polish that smelled like grapes and berries. Glad I did not try. I am not brave enough for soap, that sounds awful. Always wanted to try candles myself, especially the food shaped/scented ones lol. Thanks for your info!
You're welcome :p! Tbh I think I could try lip balm again, I have some vanilla scented, I wonder what it tastes like but I don't wanna ruin the perfect shape of the lip balm.
Once you bite a chunk out or mess it up it’s never the same 😭
Do you not have a bad stomach or a reaction after? I'm super concerned how it would be the next day
But my stomach problems were really bad a few months ago, my stomach is way better now
I can't even imagine, my stomach let's upset so easily just by eating extra hot food. It must be super difficult on a physical and emotional level for you right? How do you navigate that?
And can you eat all these things in public or do you do it alone?
I do it alone, I don't do it in public but in the past I would do it in front of guests or family members. I'd chew on wood, eat paper, drink small amounts of nail polish remover, and eat plastic stickers. I don't do it in front of people anymore I'm too embarrassed but I didn't gaf at that time. Also the less I eat the inedible stuff the less my stomach has been hurting and going to the bathroom doesn't end up in me being there for 5 hours and screaming and almost passing out (which is what happened last time). And also my tongue doesn't hurt from nail polish remover anymore because I haven't consumed it, so yay. And the emotional stuff about my pica is that I sometimes feel ashamed when I go back to eating stuff I shouldn't.
Sometimes a little yeah
What happens if you just don't eat it?
I just crave it a lot, especially nail polish remover. When I buy nail polish remover (which I haven't done in a while) and I try to stop myself from consuming it I always fail and end up consuming it even if it's in small amounts.
And then what? do you feel relieved, ashamed, regretful , euphoric?
A mix of euphoria and shame, it makes me feel disappointed in myself because I'm like "wow I haven't eaten (non edible stuff) in a while!" But then I'm like "I did it again, I was so close to not doing it again."
So like every other addiction then. When did it start?
I was around 10 or 11 I think
Anything happen in and around that time. Any other ocd style symptoms?
Yes
Just buy 5 O'Clock vodka and you're gucci
Can you choose not to eat the things that you have urges to eat?
Yes but it's hard for me depending on what it is to be honest.
I have OCD and when I start doing one of my rituals, all I can think is "here we go again...why am I doing this? This is the worst"
Do you have something like this when your PICA behaviour happens?
I have pica and when I give in the the urges to eat soil I enjoy every second of it 😹
Yeah I do sometimes
Samesies…
I eat flour and chalk, and it's awful. Sometimes I have strong cravings, and I've started eating kaolin. The taste is disgusting, but I love the sensation of biting into a pebble. However, my iron levels have dropped so low that I almost fainted one day when I was running for a bus.
Now I'm trying very hard not to eat it anymore.
I'm so sorry that you're experiencing this, I would recommend going to a doctor because this sounds very serious. I have eaten chalk before but hated it because of the taste.
Thank you so much for the advice. It's true, when I ate chalk it made me sick and I felt like vomiting, so I started eating kaolin to compensate, even though it was a bad idea.
Isn't pica due to a nutritional deficiency?
I think it's different for everyone, some people's pica is caused by nutritional deficiency, for some it's their pregnancy and for some it's autism. But yeah I did have nutrition deficiency for a while.
I was thinking you were craving fiber by the looks of it. Have you tried finding food safe alternatives?
I never looked for safe food alternatives, maybe I should.
There's a little girl with pica on social media I can't remember what her name is but she's found to like quite a bit of safe food items :)
Thank you for informing me, I'll try to search it up, I think I've seen her videos before tho so I think I know who you're talking about
Are you talking about the girl that has ARFID?
No there's a little girl with curly hair that has pica she likes to eat drywall and stuff
I wonder if wasabi peas would be like nail polish remover at all
Yeah it's usually iron and zinc. But also mental illness.
Yes usually.
The mind is craving minerals.
I definitely was like this when I was pregnant since my iron was low.
Iirc it's only considered actual pica if there is not an underlying nutritional deficiency
I had a bout with PICA when I had extremely low iron. My go to was ice. I knew every restaurant that had good ice. Fortunately for me, a new doctor got me signed up for iron infusions and it stopped. I'm lucky in how mine manifested itself but had I craved any of the things you eat, I wouldn't have been able to stop. I couldn't stop eating the ice even though I knew how bad it was for my teeth.
Ice? I craved that late in my first pregnancy. I thought it was just that it was a really hot summer and I was 8 months pregnant and wanted to cool down the internal furnace. I didn't even think of telling my doctor about it and I only saw a GP throughout the pregnancy so there really weren't any blood tests but now I'm thinking I might have been low on iron. I'd eat a 5kg bag a day. I didn't think about it being bad for my teeth; I just thought it was a healthy low cal snack!
I'm sorry that you had to go through that :( It's good that it stopped. But I didn't know that ice is bad for the teeth.
What texture did you expect to be nasty but actually enjoyed?
Pencils
Might have to try that!
Please don't try it, it's not healthy to eat non edible stuff😓
What was the most dangerous thing you've eaten?
nail polish remover and pieces of my mattress I guess
And the weirdest
What eating a matress is normal?
As you recommended people not eating any of the things you have, even in small amounts, has it affected your health or have you had any terrible side effects from doing so?
Personally I didn't experience severe side effects, but drinking nail polish remover is obviously unhealthy and it can cause side effects if consumed. But when I did consume nail polish remover it burned my tongue so it was stinking for a couple of days and it hurt when I ate food
That’s all that happened? I mean, it seems quite poisonous. I’m surprising a stronger reaction hasn’t occurred
I don't consume a lot of nail polish remover which is why the reaction wasn't stronger, I don't drink the whole bottle lol :p but my dad once saw me drinking a bit of it and pouring it onto my tongue and then sniffing it and he was terrified, I just can't stop doing it. Also don't do any of the stuff that I did.
You don’t need to worry about me, haha! I can see why your dad would be horrified. Have you gone to a doctor or sought out therapy?
I do go to therapy but not for this, I will tell my therapist about this issue and I'll go to a doctor for a checkup
how did eating these non-food items impact your digestion? did you feel pain?
Yeah a bit, my stomach was uh not having a good time, same thing with my tongue because of nail polish remover
I had it when I was pregnant. Ate paper every day 😆😆😆
I don't recommend eating paper or any stuff that isn't safe to eat, I was also never pregnant but I freaking LOVE paper
I didn’t want to but I HAD to lol. Stuck to unlined but still not great for ya. That was 37 years ago…..
Ive ate some questionable non food items as a kid including commet bleach powder sand and other things
I never heard of comet bleach powder because I don't think it's in my country (or I just have never seen it before) but damn that's really unsafe
Have you ate anything thats caused you serious problems? Like has it ever caused you to be hospitalised or anything along those lines?
Nope
What age did this start? Does the desire come and go or is it pretty consistent? Have you sought any treatment and if so what happened?
I haven't thought of treatment before because I don't think it's that bad, the desires come and go ( edited because I misspelled go)
When did you get diagnosed? Do you have a treatment plan?
(My son (2yo) eats fuzz, hair, and cat litter off the floor. I’m sure it’s texture related. We don’t know what to do or how to help yet.)
To be honest my treatment plan is going to therapy so I can talk about it and a doctor for a checkup. I don't really know what to do about it other than that and also eating actual food that looks/has the texture of the stuff that Isn't edible but I eat anyway. I think it started when I was 10 or 11, maybe a bit younger. Also try to give your son something that has the texture of cat litter like cookie crumbles/crushed cereal maybe just make sure he doesn't accidentally choke on it.
Shoenice…: is that you?
I don't know who that is but I did search him up on google just now and I just saw a couple of Twitter videos and gifs of him just guzzling down alcohol 😭
Also… as someone who almost randomly died last year from a gi bleed. I hope you are making all this up. If you aren’t. I hope you don’t die from it. Life’s way too much fun to end it by accident.
I'm so sorry :( also no I'm not making this up. I really don't wanna be eating/chewing all this stuff but I genuinely can't stop myself from doing it sometimes. And thank you, you're sweet, I hope you have a nice day/night and that you're doing okay.
Honestly, if you don't want to be doing it (even if you don't think it is that bad), this is an addiction and treatment exists. I implore you to speak to a doctor about it, help is available and this type of disorder can mess you up in ways that you might not even know about.
Edit: spelling
Thank you, I will try telling my therapist
He ate shoes and other stuff as well. Probably one of the bigger OG YouTubers. Back when YouTube wasn’t so “marketable”.
HUH!?????
When did you get diagnosed and do you get medication to stop harmful cravings
I don't get medication for the cravings, they're not that bad lately and I don't think my cravings are that bad, also I had more harmful cravings in the past like fire matches (there were instances where I chewed on the wood part and swallowed it but I mostly just sucked on the match head. I don't recommend it, it's very unhealthy for you so please don't try it). I started doing this when I was like 10-11 years old if I remember correctly.
Do you remember how it started?
I started eating fire matches or just licking the fire match head off, and chewing on metal. I enjoyed eating/chewing fire matches for a few years until I stopped because my dad told me something about them (I think it was that it would make me get cancer or something like that idk) so I stopped with fire matches and moved onto other things.
Is it a compulsion to actually swallow these things or is it more about the texture in your mouth? Could you just hold/chew something in your mouth to keep that craving at bay but not swallow? I'm surprised you poisoned yourself yet.
I don't always have the urge to swallow it, it depends on what it is. Also I'm actually surprised that people on here think that this is severe because to me this was a completely normal thing that I do (until people on here showed their concern). I never really realised that this was actually very bad, I remember people telling me in real life to NOT eat the stuff that I eat or I could accidentally poison myself but I never really took this seriously.
I mean certain things i feel some people are on the spectrum of eating weird things (chewing nails or eating chapstick for example, or pregnant women craving chalk and such) but things like nail polish and remover (acetone) can sicken you...have you seen a doctor for this?
I haven't seen a doctor for this but when I see my therapist I'll tell them what I can do to stop this
Are you planning on having children?
If so, please reconsider or seek mental health counseling beforehand. You do not want to teach your children this seriously maladaptive behavior.
I would go to therapy before having kids, I think most people should (I don't mean this in a rude way, what I mean is that I think that most people should work on their bad traits before having kids so they don't hurt their future kids).
Is there an internal voice saying I need to eat this ? Are there things you won’t eat ? Levels of that’s ok but that’s too far ?
There are levels that are ok but that's too far, and there is also an internal voice
Are you eating plastic? Paper metal ?
I really like eating paper and chewing on metal, the texture of paper is amazing for me and I just really like the taste of metal. I chew on plastic. (Don't do any of this)
OP you should list your pica cravings the ones you genuinely struggle with not ones that were a one time deal. And let's find you some food replacements!
What could be a good replacement for nail polish remover 🥀
I mean are you an adult? Cuz I feel like the best replacement would be ever clear that's been watered down
No I'm not an adult.
Otherwise maybe alcohol free bitters might work?
I searched it up and I don't think it's my country, I'll just try and stop consuming nail polish remover that much.
Have you had any medical problems because of what you’ve eaten?
Nope, I don't think so? But when I consumed too much nail polish remover my tongue would sting for days so I guess that could count?
That is definitely carcinogenic and related to sterility.
I just searched up what carcinogenic means (I'm not a native speaker of English) and I'm not surprised but that did scare me a bit.
How did you get to know that you have PICA?
ETA: Kids sometimes eat inedible stuff. Soil, chalk, soap - I don't have PICA but I've eaten all of this.
Because I didn't just eat it once, I continuously eat it, and I did ruin a couple of my teeth because of it (from chewing on metal too hard, I don't recommend it. It isn't safe).
do you have any documented vitamin or mineral deficiencies that could be driving the pica, or is it a separate entity?
I don't have any documented vitamin deficiencies, I'll go to a doctor soon.
Have you had your iron levels looked at?
I do suspect that they're low but I haven't been at a check up in a while
You need to!
Especially if you live in the USA, you should assume that anything that wasn’t designed to be eaten is carcinogenic to your colon.
You’re introducing this stuff to tissue and causing inflammation after a number of decades or over time…
I don't live in the USA. I will go to a doctor for a checkup, also thank you for informing me that this is carcinogenic. Maybe this will make me stop eating so much unsafe stuff
Have you tried iron pills?
Nope
You should. Usually pica exists because of an iron deficiency. I used to have it. I was a fan of chalk, cornstarch and baby powder. Iron pills curbed my appetite.
Pica is commonly a symptom of Anemia. Did you get checked for that?
No
I’m sorry if this sounds intrusive. But I think it’s better to get checked. Pica is usually a symptom of Iron deficiency Anemia.
It's okay it doesn't sound intrusive, thank you.
Best of luck to you ☺️
Thank you!
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Is there anything you were disappointed by? And do you notice if you crave certain things depending on your mood?
No questions, I just want to say that PICA means COCK in my language and I'm with my translator on so I was just scrolling and had to read "I HAVE COCK, AMA" and I was like 😕🤨😠
Can you chew on a battery for me and tell me if the lithium in batteries tastes the same as my lithium medication?
It's always a new account...
It’s also an AMA….they are meant to be anonymous.
And where's the credibility? He'll say he eats soap and we believe and go on? With post history you can tell if its complete bs or not. This way, its a fairytale.
Dawg do you want me to record a video of me eating soap or something 😭, I mean I could if you want me to (but there are weirdos on reddit and I'm scared I would end up on some weird gooner subreddit 🥀)
Pica isn’t really some unheard of thing. Plenty of people get it. I really don’t find anything OP said to be unbelievable enough to warrant digging in their post history anyway
Chromes ai overview for how common pica is-