It\u2019s the toxic compulsion that doctors claim could kill her. But this 19-year-old girl claims she is hopelessly addicted \u2026 to eating soap. A rare medical condition has left Tempestt Henderson, from Florida, eating up to five bars a soap a week \u2013 and washing powder too.
\n\u201cI remember the first time I dipped my fingers into the washing powder,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI dabbed the powder onto my tongue and it tasted so sweet, and salty \u2013 it just felt so right. I was hooked straight away.\u201d
\nThe nursing student says she knew eating soap was dangerous, but ignored the warning labels on the box in favour of licking the deadly powder daily, from the minute she woke up in the morning.
\nSoon she had moved onto licking the bubbles of soap in the shower, too, a habit that was getting her through up to five bars of soap a week.
\nAfter six months of eating soap, unhappy Tempestt decided to be brave and seek medical advice. She was diagnosed with a rare disorder called PICA, which doctors told her is characterised by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive.
\nSufferers have been known to compulsively eat metal, coins, chalk, batteries and even toothbrushes. It can often be caused by a mineral deficiency, which explains why pregnant women often crave eating coal when needing iron.
\nBut in Tempestt\u2019s case doctors believed the condition was brought on by stress.
\n\u201cThings got really stressful for me when boyfriend, Jason, split up with me and left for college,\u201d she admitted.
\n\u201cHe told me he was going to college in Kansas to study business. I begged him to give the long distance relationship a go, but he told me it was over. I was devastated.\u201d
\nWhen Tempestt herself had to leave for college, hundreds of miles away from her family home in Florida, things took a turn for the worse.
\nDr. Barton Blinder, the world\u2019s authority on PICA, says that eating soap in these quantities could seriously affect Tempestt\u2019s health.
\nBut for Tempestt, therapy got to the bottom of her addiction to soap, and the cause of her PICA.
\n\u201cI always knew I loved the smell of washing detergent.
\n\u201cI used to love smelling the powder, but when life got so stressful I found only eating the soap would help,\u201d she explained.
\nPsychologists have said that Tempestt most likely turned to soap eating as a comforting coping mechanism when she found herself away from her family.
\nThe doctor gave Tempestt intensive Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, to give her replacement thoughts that will prevent her from compulsively reaching for soap.
\nShe has also been encouraged to go for long walks, avoiding places where soap is present, like bathrooms and launderettes.
\nShe added: \u201cDoctors have encouraged me to talk about my issues, because they think my addiction is caused by me bottling things up.\u201d
\nAnd for the teenager who used to take not one, not two, but three bottles of soap into the shower, she hasn\u2019t eaten soap since September 2010.
\nWhen her mother found out about her daughter\u2019s addiction, she ordered Tempestt to return home from college. It may have been a smart move as Tempestt admitted: \u201cI just couldn\u2019t face being back there, alone, with a campus full of soap.\u201d
\nToday, she faces a long road to recover, but says she hopes she\u2019ll never have to eat soap ever again.
\n\u201cI suppose my Mum is secretly relieved that I was addicted to soap,\u201d she admitted, \u201cand not dangerous drugs or something.\u201d
\nSource: The Mirror<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the toxic compulsion that doctors claim could kill her. But this 19-year-old girl claims she is hopelessly addicted \u2026 to eating soap. A rare medical condition has left Tempestt Henderson, from Florida, eating up to five bars a soap a week \u2013 and washing powder too. \u201cI remember the first time I dipped my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n