Meet the Woman Who Eats Couch Cushions

You have to watch the video

Meet the Woman Who Eats Couch Cushions

Compulsions drive people to do very strange and unusual things. But eating couch cushions? That may very well be the strangest yet.

Adele, a 30-year-old woman from Bradenton, Fla., recently came forward on a TV show about her bizarre taste for foam materials.

The woman is featured on the TLC program "My Strange Addiction" munching on bite-sized pieces of sofa stuffing -- and even going so far as to prepare snack-sized servings of couch cushions.

The show has already highlighted people who are addicted to tanning booths, ventriloquism and rock collecting, and others who eat any manner of strange things, including toilet paper and kitchen cleanser, but the episode on Adele's couch-consuming habit might be the most compelling yet.

According to psychologist Jason Mihalko, Adele's behavior presents very much like a condition called pica.

"[Pica is] characterized by an individual having a desire to eat nonfood substances," Mihalko told AOL News. "It's most often seen in young children and women."

"There are cases of pica where people eat metal, dirt, feces, chalk, writing utensils and [tree] sap," he said.

As for what might drive a person to eat such strange material? Well, the truth is no one really knows.

"The research on pica is scant," Mihalko explained. "Some research points toward a mineral deficiency, while the more recent thinking is that pica is more closely related to obsessive compulsive disorder."

Mihalko told AOL News that if he were assessing Adele -- or any of the other people featured on "My Strange Addiction" -- he would do a complete assessment for obsessive compulsive disorder, also known as OCD.

"[Some] people with OCD get relief from enormous amounts of stress when they engage in whatever their particular behavior is, whether it be checking locks, washing hands or other obsessive behavior, while some experience enormous stress in engaging in these behaviors."

And what can be done about an obsession with eating couch cushions?

Mihalko suggested that if the couch eating were a method of getting relief or maintaining control, he would try to help her learn different ways to alleviate her stress.

"I'd want to teach her other skills that could provide relief that would be safer [than eating foam material]."

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/21/me...ouch-cushions/

I wonder how that stuff metabolizes in her digestive tract. I will have to check out what foam is made of. Twenty years of eating this stuff........................

I would imagine she is on Ikea's black ban list

Biggles wrote:

I wonder how that stuff metabolizes in her digestive tract. I will have to check out what foam is made of. Twenty years of eating this stuff........................

Part 2 will explain

Biggles wrote:

I wonder how that stuff metabolizes in her digestive tract. I will have to check out what foam is made of. Twenty years of eating this stuff........................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane

She better not come to my work..she might get a taste for the rigid materials and eat my collection

My favorite youtube comment

"do you guys think cushions that have been farted on taste different?"

Well she was lucky there, because I have seen what has come out of some pica patients, especially when they have eaten heaps of hair............................