Chalk Eating, Extreme Tanning, and Hoarders

We watched a very interesting show last night on Discovery Health. It was about people who have abnormal cravings for things. One girl was addicted to eating chalk, another couldn't stop tanning, and one was a shopaholic. The shopaholic was interesting, but, in my opinion, run of the mill. The chalk eater and the chronic tanner were the ones I was most interested in.

The girl who eats chalk was interesting to me because you wouldn't know it if you met her. She is very sly with her chalk eating. When she told one of her good friends about her secret, he was amazed to learn this fact about her. The only thing he mentioned was that he recognized the sound of her chomping on the chalk, but never questioned that it was anything but a breath mint or something. She also admitted that she enjoyed taking a swig of detergent when she does her laundry. From what her doctor told her, there really isn't much harm to her body by eating chalk, however the detergent wasn't a good thing. I felt physically ill watching this girl munch on chalk, but I couldn't stop watching. It was fascinating to me.

The girl who was addicted to tanning was really sad, in my opinion. She looked completely ridiculous and was bright orange. She would tan every day, sometimes multiple times, and never wore any sunscreen. She felt that she didn't look good if she wasn't tan. The sad part was that her sister, who looked much like her, was not a serial tanner and looked really cute. The tanner girl looked like Anna Nicole Smith, and not in a good way. I felt bad for her, because it was completely obvious that she has major self-esteem issues that go deeper than the tanning. At one point the show took her to a dermatologist to discuss the effects of tanning. She got very upset and stormed out of the office and wouldn't let the show tape her after that.

After this show another gem came on, this time about hoarders. It was late and we should have gone to bed, but we stayed up and watched the hoarders. This was another sad situation, because the hoarders just can't help themselves. Of the 3 people they featured, only one was able to be somewhat successful. The successful guy lived in New York and really let the person who was helping him get rid of things. The other 2 featured really didn't want to be helped. One woman was being helped by her son, and all they did was fight about it. It was sad. Another couple tried to get rid of some of their things, but they are both hoarders, although the husband won't admit it.

We all have our issues, and I am in no way poking fun at anyone. It is interesting to me how we all work as humans and it is fun to learn more about how we are similar, and how we are very different.