Please someone tell me that this show is staged? I mean it obviously is played up for production value, but i would like to believe this whole show is not real. I hadn't watched TLC in quite a long time and when I tuned in this is what it was showing.
A girl eating mattresses. Seriously? That is the craziest show I have ever seen.
I highly suspect many are fake or exaggerated. But there is a real health eating disorder called pica. I first learned about it while pregnant in 1993 and asked if I had weird cravings such as clay or even laundry detergent. I thought the midwife was joking with me. She went on to explain that during pregnancy some women are low on iron and will actually crave dirt, clay or rocks which have natural iron in it. Makes sense right? Weird but true
Years later the tv show Untold Stories of the ER did an episode of a woman with abdominal pain and she was holding a roll of toilet paper. He learned she ate toilet paper! Out of curiosity I researched this online and discovered pica. Think of how some kids eat paste or crayons?
As a young kid I was would actually swallow small rocks. I did it one day as a dare then I’d do it to shock my friends. After awhile I had an odd craving for them at times. But it wasn’t something I did often or was it a craving I gave into. I did this maybe 10-12 times a year for a few years. I was an odd kid.
I suspect TLC takes stories like this and blows them into something bigger