USA: A 19-year old girl has been found addicted to eating soap and washing powder. The name of the girl is Tempestt Henderson. Miss Henderson claims she is addicted to it, even though doctors say that the toxic elements in soap and washing powder could kill her.
The girl having the arrest diet in the world eats around five bars of soap a week alongwith washing powder.
‘I remember the first time I dipped my fingers into the washing powder,’ she said.
‘I dabbed the powder onto my tongue and it tasted so sweet, and salty…it just felt so right. I was hooked straight away.’ She added.
She says that she knew of the impending dangers of eating soap but could not help from forming a habit of eating soaps. Her habit of eating this rare diet began when sshe started to lick bubbles of soap while showering.
‘In the shower, I like to lather up a green bar of soap, and lick the bubbles. And as the soap disintegrates, I pop a tiny amount of the soap into my mouth and suck it. It’s heavenly.
‘I love the clean feeling it gives me. Eating soap feels so much cleaner than just washing with it.’
It was almost 6 months since eating this rare diet that the girl approached doctors. Like her rare diet, she has been diagnosed with a rare disorder named PICA. explaining pica, the doctors said that it is a condition in which the patient resorts to eating substances that are not nutritive. Stress according to the doctors seems to be the reason for her affinity for soap.
The girl explained how her break-up with her boy friend and then shifting away from her parents as her college was very far away made her take stress. This stress made her take showers and bath more and more, thus leading to her likeness for soap and washing powder.
Dr Barton Blinder, the world’s authority on PICA, says that eating soap in these quantities could seriously affect Tempestt’s health:.
‘With soap, the worry is the problems associated with ingesting toxic chemicals, which are typically alkaline but there are other toxic substances in soap.
‘These can damage someone’s metabolism and cause digestive problems. With soap, you’re also concerned about the acid-base balance of the blood.’
Psychologists term Tempestt habit a result of her finding to be away from the family.
She is now currently recovering hoping to get rid of this bad habit