"People With Strange Addictions"

I watched a documentary about people with strange addictions and these people were suffering from different types of compulsive disorders and didn't really realize it. There were four people living in a world of denial, when it came down to their disorder. the first case involved a man that had been married eighteen years to his wife, and for what ever reason they end up getting a divorce. The man started to run, I guess to release stress, and pain. Running literally became his will to live or his emotional outlet. He ran 20 miles every day, in the morning and at night with a head light to see where he was going. The therapist talked about his compulsion to run, if he was running for his health and exercises, that was good; but if you're running to stop the pain, your health is in jeopardy;because you're to the point where you feel like you can't stop.The therapist also told him that excessive running can cause bodily harm, if we wasn't careful.

The man didn't think of his running as a bad thing,which means he was in total denial of his disorder, he doesn't realize that he has a serious problem, or he doesn't want to admit to having a problem. People can't the much needed help, until they realize and admit they have a problem. They have to come to terms with their disorder and attack it head on. This man's case ended with him saying he was going to try and cut back on his running, but we all know without mental health, that's not going to last for long.

The second case is the story of a young women and her addiction to eating chalk, i had heard of it, but I wasn't sure that it really happen. This documentary prove that this addiction does exist. This disorder is called Pica disease. Which means she had a compulsion to eat chalk every day. She said started eating chalk in junior high school and now, she was out of college.Therapist says Pica disease is a disease where the person likes to eat grainy or gritty substances, this means there something in this persons diet; they get compulsions to eat these substances to try and replace what is missing in their diet. She was also in denial of her disorder because she thought it was normal to eat chalk; she had did it, so long until it had become the norm for her. The therapist told her her that even though she hadn't gotten sick form eating the chalk that she didn't know what the long term effects of eating it; would be.The therapist told her that her actions could be detrimental to her health, she laughed about it because thought it was funny. She also use to drink laundry detergent but she stopped doing it, she sounded like a glutton for punishment. The therapist told her he was concerned, because people with these types of disorders sometimes go the extremes, he talked about people that ate their own hair and formed these huge hair balls that has to be surgically removed.

This kind of compulsion can be life threatening to the addicts, but the young lady didn't see eating chalk as a problem. The young women never admitted that she had a problem, so until she comes to that realization, he couldn't be helped. She said that she would continue to eat chalk until it becomes a problem, which is a silly option.

The Third case was about a young black women, that had the compulsion to shop and spend money, because it made her feel good. she didn't think she had a problem, even though she had $10,000 worth of credit card debt and $75,000 worth of school loans, so she incurred $ 85,000 worth of debt and she was still spending. She said shopping made her feel good, but her sister kept telling her that she needed to seek help, because she had a problem.She kept denying that there was a problem. After a while of constantly shopping for the same things over and over again, she finally listen to her sister and made an appointment with a phys-co- therapist . The therapist basked her how long did she shop, and she said she never thought about the time, until now, because she never thought about the time in regard to shopping.she told the therapist that she would shop from 10.00 o'clock A.M to 10.00 PM, at night and never thought about the time when she was shopping.

She realized that she spent a lot of time shopping to the point of being tired from shopping. Shopping to her was like a 9-5 job, but she enjoyed doing it. she started to realize a lot of things, after the therapist brought it to her attention. The more she went to her therapy session;l the more she became aware of her shopping problem. Therapist explained to her that she wasn't shopping because it made her feel good, but that she shopped because she was missing love and affections in her life, and she compensated by shopping to make her self feel better. She started to cry, because the therapist had given her a true diagnosis of her problem, so she can begin to heal. She kept seeing her therapist and she accepted the fact that she had a problem and she was happy that she was getting the needed help to combat her addiction. She called her sister and told her she was right, she did have a problem, but she getting help now and she was feeling better about the out come. This young lady admitted that she had a problem and got help for it.

The fourth and finally case was a young women that turned Tanorexic, she spent every day of her life jumping from one tanning beds to another to get a tan. She never thought of her compulsion for constant tanning to be out of the ordinary, even though her mother kept talking to her about the effects of to much tanning. To her tanning was it,because it made her look so beautiful. She tanned twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening every day. Her mother was very concerned about melanoma skin cancer, she said she didn't want to lose her daughter to cancer if she didn't have too. Her daughter was like others that had a compulsive disorders and she wouldn't admit that she had a problem of constantly tanning her body. The therapist says that a person that tans all the time has a problem with their body, they keep tanning trying to make their bodies perfect. This young lady didn't have any idea of the danger she was putting body in,because of the constant tanning; she was also in totally denial. Her mother finally got her to see a doctor to try to talk some sense into her,before it was to late. the doctor talked to her and found out that she really didn't think her constant tanning was a problem. The doctor told her that people that tan a;ot, put themselves in jeopardy of a skin cancer called melanoma; and went as far as to bring a you lady that had suffered cancer from to much tanning. the young women got upset with the doctor for bring the young lady to her, because she really didn't want to hear it.

The young women wanted her mother to take her home, because she thought that they were trying to attack her because of her co pulsion to tan,so the mother too her home. The young women didn't admit she had a problem or even wanted to seek help for her problem. She cut back on her tanning, be it appeared that given up on tanning was going to be hard to do. The young women had no clue that all of that tanning was going to make her skin leathery and old before her time Out of these four cases that I presented to you, there was only one sensible person in the group that actually wanted help-and got it, because she wanted to get her life back on the right track. It's really sad that people get these kind of strange addictions, because they all suffered some traumatic and emotionally problem that led them to these compulsions. My advice to anyone is, if you fit into either of these categories, to please seek help, so you don't end up going through hell like these people. I remember, when I was younger and going through madness with my first husband with his domestic violence; there was a time when I use to buy things because they made feel good . Today,, I'm so glad That God took that spirit from me and replaced it with a healthy attitude.

Benny Faye Douglass