Why people eat soap, metal, dirt and other inedible things. Let’s talk to a psychologist

Some people’s taste preferences are so far from the standards that even the most unpretentious person would say “yuck”. And we are not talking about fans of strange combinations and sweet and salty combos like French fries with ice cream or pizza with pineapple. We’re talking about those who prefer metal, glass, dirt, soap and other inedible objects to familiar dishes.

We deal with the doctor, who and why have an irresistible craving for inedible and even dangerous things.

What is picacism and what are its causes

Among the many strange and harmful diets, there are particularly dangerous ones. Among them is picacism (allotriophagy) – a disease in which there is a perversion of appetite and uncontrollable desire to consume completely inedible substances.

Candidate of Medical Sciences, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Psychology at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Picacism is an eating disorder involving the eating of inedible objects such as paper, dirt, thread, whitewash, laundry detergent, coffee grounds, etc. It is most common in children with mental retardation, autism.

But picacism is not diagnosed in children less than two years old, because at this age the use of such objects is considered part of normal development.

The causes of picacism can be many.

• Lack of vitamins, minerals or other substances, for example, in iron deficiency anemia.
• Changes in hormonal background and receptor sensitivity, such as in pregnancy.
• Autism, mental retardation (difficulty recognizing edible – inedible), schizophrenia (manifestation of psychosis), obsessive-compulsive disorder (compulsive action).
• Another eating disorder, such as anorexia. In this case, eating inedible objects is an attempt to satisfy hunger, fill the stomach, but not to gain weight.
• In children, it is a way to draw the attention of parents and other adults to the problem they have.
• Acute stress or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Xenia: Most often the development of picacism provokes iron deficiency (iron deficiency anemia in women), juvenile chlorosis (a special variant of iron deficiency anemia in girls during puberty), as well as a deficiency of calcium, zinc, vitamin B6.

For example, American Adele Edwards many years ago noticed a craving for eating dirt. The cause of the strange predilection turned out to be a deficiency of iron – half the norm. To top it all off, the woman had been eating sofas for more than 20 years. The mother of many children noticed a craving for eating soft foam foam as a child, when her parents were preparing for divorce.

According to the woman, the unusual gastronomic habit seemed like something she could control. It is known that the American woman was treated with the help of hypnosis, because she realized that the addiction could cost her life. In conjunction with therapy, a gastroenterologist prescribed her iron supplements, which helped her get rid of her addiction.

What can lead to eating inedible things?

Picacism can be harmless, but it can also cause serious damage to health. For example, 80-year-old Serbian Branko Crnogorac almost lost his life because of his addiction. The man had been eating inedible metal, plastic and glass objects for 20 years. During this time he ate about 12 thousand forks, 25 thousand light bulbs, about 6 thousand vinyl records, 2.6 thousand plates and 2 thousand spoons.

The pensioner said he ventured into the gastronomic experiment while battling heartburn, when a friend advised him to relieve the condition by eating sand. “It worked and I thought why not try something else and one thing led to another,” he revealed.

According to Branco, he had no health problems. And all would have been fine if one day he hadn’t choked on a pedal in an attempt to eat his bike in three days on a bet with friends. After being hospitalized with a choking attack, the pensioner decided to give up the dangerous diet: “I almost died. I needed an urgent operation. At the same time, doctors found two kilograms of various metal products in my stomach, including two gold rings. This worried me, as I realized that my digestive system could no longer cope. I haven’t eaten metal since then.”

Xenia: Eating sharp or hard objects can lead to disruption of the integrity of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract walls and intestinal obstruction. In such cases, the life of patients is saved only by surgical intervention.

The negative consequences of picacism also include:

• chronic pain syndrome on the part of the GI tract;
• severe gastrointestinal disorders;
• nutritional deficiencies;
• heavy metal poisoning (e.g., lead from peeling paint, mercury from eating soil near roads);
• contamination with parasites, pathogenic bacteria by eating dirt, etc…;
• development of depression – often people suffering from picacism are prone to depressive disorders, sometimes associated with suicidal thoughts.

Picacism can be harmless in the case of peculiarities of the body structure. A vivid example of this is the French artist Michel Lotito, who ate everything in a row: bicycles, supermarket carts, computers, televisions and even a coffin. He is said to have ground a Cessna 150 light multipurpose airplane into powder and sprinkled it on toast every morning for two years. The man ate about 900 grams of inorganic substances per day, which made him famous and into the Guinness Book of World Records. To digest inedible objects Lotito allowed his stomach, the walls of which were twice as thick as those of a normal person. At the age of 57, Michel died of a heart attack.

What to do if you notice something like this behind you

Consult a doctor and identify the cause, as well as exclude the lack of any minerals and vitamins. To do this, you need to take a number of tests as recommended by a specialist and diagnose the state of the gastrointestinal tract. If necessary, psychodiagnostics is carried out to identify or exclude the presence of mental illness: autism, schizophrenia, depression and so on.

Xenia: Depending on the diagnostic results, medication treatment of the underlying medical or nutritional problem is carried out. Psychotherapy is prescribed, for example, for stress disorders. If it is not about an adult, behavioral therapy is carried out, teaching parents how to manage the child’s condition.

Picacism is not the only strange addiction related to food. Read about another unusual phenomenon – feederism – in the article at the link.