From time to time, something comes across our desk that makes us wonder if anything could be so bizarre in real life. The fact of the matter is, however, this woman is real and her addiction is real. She isn’t addicted to something common, such as cigarettes, soda or Twinkies, she is addicted to sponges. That’s right… This woman eats up to 20 sponges every day and she soaks them in fairy liquid, a type of dish soap.
This woman suffers from a condition that is known as pica. It is similar to OCD but the individuals who suffer from this condition crave items that don’t have any nutritional value. She not only eats the sponges, she can’t get enough of them!
“I enjoy the taste of it, I enjoy it more than food. Some people go out for a steak, I would rather go out for a sponge. It’s a guilty pleasure, some people smoke – I eat sponges. It’s not a dirty habit, it’s a clean. My friends takes the mick out of me and say: “Are we going to have sponge and chips for tea?”. I chew it and sometimes I swallow it. I like the smell and taste of the washing up liquid on the sponge. It tastes like apples, it’s quite foamy. My mouth gets full of foam.”
Although it may seem odd to us that she has a sponge addiction, she doesn’t have any unusual side effects to it and she does not plan on stopping. The only problem that could occur is the soap that she is using could lead to some nasty side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or abdominal pain.
“People say what are you going to do if you get pregnant as woman sometimes eat them when they are pregnant. But I eat them all the time. ‘When people find out about it they call me weird. They are shocked by it and ask lots of questions. I think there’s a lot of people who do it but won’t talk about it.”