Insane Addictions You Won’t Believe Are Real

From smoking to smartphones, caffeine to casinos, people around the world are addicted to all kinds of substances and activities. While you may know about some of the most obvious obsessions, there are some people out there with some seriously freaky fixations. Whether it’s chewing on glass, pulling hair from shower drains, or even eating their late partner’s ashes, let's uncover some of the most insane and extreme addictions people claim they have!

Eating Cat Hair

Cats can be so cute you could be forgiven for getting addicted to petting them, but what about eating them? I don’t mean actually eating them, instead, there’s the case of a woman called Lisa, from Michigan, who’s apparently developed an insatiable appetite for her cat’s fur!

The woman featured on the utterly insane TLC network show, My Strange Addiction. On the show, Lisa said the cravings for fur started over 15 years ago. At that point she’d spontaneously pick the hairs off her cat, before rolling them into balls and sucking on them! And somehow, Lisa’s addiction has gotten even worse over the years.

Nowadays, she owns 5 cats whose hair she consistently snacks on. Things have gotten so bad, Lisa claims she can’t last more than 2 hours without it. Her addiction has become so extreme, she’ll even lick the hair right off the cat! Despite claiming that gruesome grooming act is a form of parental love, those close to Lisa are more than a little concerned. And, they’re right to be! Not only is that abnormal, it’s also dangerous.

Over the years, it’s estimated that Lisa has consumed over 3,200 hairballs, leading to worries that she has a trichobezoar; a mass of undigested hair in the digestive system, which can, if left untreated, be fatal! Let’s just hope for Lisa’s sake that she gets over that cat-astrophic obsession soon!

Eating Bricks

Whether it’s the smell, mess, or fear of getting sick, us humans aren’t great fans of mud. Clearly the muddy memo hasn’t reached our next case, Pakkirappa from India. Because he loves the stuff. But he’s not into rolling or playing in mud! No, instead, he eats it! But it’s not just mud he loves to eat. Pakkirappa also pigs out on bricks and gravel!

First documented on the ‘Truly’ YouTube channel, Pakkirappa. He first started eating bricks when he was as young as 10, and has continued the horrifying habit into his adult life. Nowadays, Pakkirappa will eat up to one brick per day, along with over 6 pounds of mud and gravel to satisfy his stomach.

When dinner time comes, he’ll wander through his town, gnawing on any building material he can find. I mean, at least it’s a free meal, but can you imagine trying to sink your teeth into your neighbors wall? Despite the dangerous diet, Pakkirappa’s teeth are all, miraculously, still intact, and he claims to suffer no ill effects. Still, it’s not a diet you’d advise anyone else to try!

Addicted To Bee Stings

Being stung by a bee is the worst! In most cases, you can expect severe pain and burning around the sting site for 1 to 2 hours, as well as some swelling that’ll last for a couple of days. Our next case: Margaret from Kentucky. Surprising as it sounds, she claims to sting herself for pleasure!

It all started as a way to cure her arthritis. And in fairness, there have been scientific studies demonstrating that bee venom does help to relieve the inflammation caused by arthritis. While Margaret’s initial intentions may’ve been to cure her pain, she quickly became dependent on the stinging sensation, so much so that she started to sting herself 15 times per day!

According to Margaret, each sting results in a ‘peppery’ sensation, bringing her a sense of relief. Well, she must be feeling pretty relieved, considering she’s apparently stung herself more than 50,000 times since her addiction first started! You may be wondering where she gets such a constant supply of stings from?

Margaret owns active beehives which she keeps in her backyard, acting as her very own bee sting vending machine! While that extreme habit doesn’t have any side effects on Margaret, bees actually die after they sting a human, but that means, for 50,000 stings, Margaret has killed more than 50,000 bees to indulge in her addiction.

Eating Glass

If you thought Pakkirappa’s teeth were made of stern stuff, then strap in, because he’s not the only one with a hideous habit of eating inedible objects. Over in China, our next case is an elderly man called Liu, who’s been given the nickname, ‘Iron Teeth’, after his story went viral online back in 2017.

As you can imagine, that isn’t because he’s a mega-marshmallow eater. Nope, instead, Liu got his name due to the fact he’s addicted to eating glass! I’m not too sure how you first realize you’ve got a taste for glass, but Liu’s been chowing down on it for most of his adult life. He’ll often whip out a tumbler in front of friends, before taking a chunk out of the rim and crunching on the glass like an apple.

Unsurprisingly, thanks to many years of glass-munching, all his teeth have weakened other than one hard tooth that he still uses. Still, you’d think the real problems would come internally. After all, having hundreds of sharp glass shards lining your stomach doesn’t sound too healthy. But miraculously, ‘Iron Teeth’ claims to have never felt any internal discomfort.

Leech Addiction

If you thought getting stung by a bee was bad, then what about getting your blood sucked by a leech? For most of us, just the thought of a cold, squishy leech feeding on our blood is enough to fuel our nightmares! But for our next case, a man by the name of Vladimir, that’s an idea that fills him with joy.

That heinous habit, which left ‘My Strange Addiction’ viewers in a frenzy, apparently started after he was involved in a car accident. For some unknown reason, he became utterly convinced the bloodthirsty bugs would help with his recovery, so he placed some on his body. Vladimir eventually made a full recovery, which fueled his conviction that the leeches had healed him and not the doctors who worked around the clock to keep him alive, but Vlad became convinced that those critters cleanse and purify his blood, preserving his youth.

According to modern science, they absolutely don’t! Still, Vlad will happily attach 12 of those little suckers to his skin at a time, losing up to 6 ounces of blood each session. While humans can lose much more blood than that before experience any side-effects, leech bites offer another concern, infection. Research has shown that people can contract infectious diseases like Hepatitis B or malaria from those crawling critters.

Funeral Fan

Back in 1983, Brazilian man, Luis Squarisi, received the unfortunate news that his father had passed away. So naturally he attended the funeral a few weeks later. All pretty normal so far. However, according to Brazilian TV network, EPTV, Luis got a bug for the mournful occasion, after attending his father’s funeral.

Possibly the most depressing place a human could be, and that guy discovered he had a thing for them! Luis got so hooked that he’d turn on the radio first thing, and listen out for anyone that passed in his hometown of Batatais, and then turn up ready to attend.

If there was no news of an upcoming funeral, he’d then go on to call the hospital and local funeral home! Things got so bad, he even quit his job so he could devote maximum time to attending funerals. Fair to say that obsession is quite the undertaking!

Dangerous Drink

Our next case of an extreme addiction comes from Heather, in Alabama. Sadly, a few years back, Heather’s mom passed away. And everyone deals with grief differently. Some people meditate, others talk to a therapist, but Heather took a slightly stranger approach. I’m not one to judge, but for legal reasons we have to say you absolutely should not do that at home, or anywhere else for that matter!

But, as a sickening coping mechanism, Heather started to suck the tip of a paint marker! Yes, for whatever reason, she found the smell of paint comforting, and decided a little taste couldn’t hurt. Heather even went as far as describing the taste of paint like a ‘thicker version of warm milk’.

The thing is, warm milk has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it that’re good for you. Paint, on the other hand, can lead to organ damage, respiratory problems, hearing loss, and even death if ingested! Despite knowing that, Heather just can’t help herself drinking up to a gallon of paint every year! For reference, that amount of paint will cover 400 square feet, enough to coat the walls of a small room!

Big on Bandages

If you’ve ever broken a bone, you might know what it’s like to be stuck in a cast. Those hard bandages, typically made from fiberglass or plaster, are designed to keep the injured part of your body from moving so it can heal. A lot of people don’t like them because of how limiting they can be, but not our next case.

When Kevin, from Chicago, was only 6, he’d wrap himself in toilet paper, pretending to be a mummy. Something about the experience stuck with him. Then, a few years later, when Kevin broke his arm rollerblading, he was fitted with a cast. Yet, despite the immobility and itchiness issues, Kevin loved his cast, as concerned classmates asked him if he was okay. And, ever since that high-school high, Kev became hooked on having a cast.

Nowadays, he’s a full-blown cast-wearing addict, spending an eye watering $50,000 on the habit! And that’s despite him having no broken bones or injuries. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this video below!

No Broken Bones, But Addicted To Wearing Casts! | My Strange Addiction by tlc uk

Yes, that guy is into wearing full body casts, just for fun! And he always gets his money’s worth, by always leaving the house with at least one cast on. In fact, he’s even admitted to wearing them when he’s on a date.

Addiction to Hair From Shower Drains

There aren’t many things worse in life than taking a shower and suddenly realizing the drain is clogged. After all, that means you’re gonna have to unclog that drain, pulling out muck, hair and whatever else finds its way down there. While that thought is enough to make most people’s skin crawl, there’s at least one man out there who relishes the terrifying task.

Evan from Seattle’s shower drain is always squeaky clean. Not because he hates the feel of an overflowing shower, but because he’s addicted to pulling out hair from shower drains. In fact, he loves it so much that he does it up to 3 times a week.

The question is, how can someone unclog their shower drain so frequently? Well, whenever Evan goes over to a friend’s house, he heads straight for the bathroom. While they might think he’s got bladder issues, he’s actually making a beeline to their plugholes to pull all that wet, gooey hair out the drain. That’s an obsession that’s literally hair-raising.

Tan Obsession

For some people, the main joy of vacationing in the sun is getting back home to show off their golden glow to their friends. Others take it a step further by going to tanning salons to top up their tan. And then there’s Hannah Tittensor who, according to news outlet, The Belfast Telegraph, ‘can’t live without a tan’. However, coming from Northern Ireland, where summer temperatures often reach a measly 65°F high, Hannah doesn’t often get a chance to tan at home. To compensate she uses sunbeds three times a week.

Considering that people who use sunbeds before the age of 35 are 87% more likely to develop skin cancer, that’s not the wisest move. Yet, sunbeds aren’t the only thing Hannah uses to top up her tan. Horrifyingly, each month she also injects herself with an online-obtained synthetic hormone, known as melanotan. That substance stimulates pigment cells in the skin to produce more melanin, giving people a darker tone.

That’s not the only effect of melanotan, though. That synthetic stuff can also lead to vomiting, acne and even heart damage. Yet Hannah’s not the only one. Malaika Kubwa, otherwise known as ‘Martina Big’, is a German woman who’s been routinely using melanotan for years, completely transforming her complexion from white to dark brown!

Eating Masks

Speaking on beauty regimes, that brings us to clay masks. For centuries, they’ve been used to help detoxify the skin by drawing out impurities and oils. Sounds a lot safer than all that fake tanning, right? Well not for one woman from California. Our next case, Natasha, can’t get enough of clay masks.

But she’s not applying them to her face, she’s eating them! She consumes up to a jar of clay per day, replacing meals with it and even uses it as a dip for chips. Yes, crazy as it sounds, Natasha claims she’s indulged in the habit for over 7 years, meaning she’s consumed close to 1,000 pounds of clay mask!

The main question is, why? Well apparently she loves the flavor, saying they: ‘taste wonderful, like wet rocks.’ Even worse than the taste, clay masks also contain aluminum and titanium, which can lead to kidney damage if consumed in large enough amounts.

Eating Matresses

You might need a nice, long nap on your comfy mattress to process some of those horrifying addictions. But sadly our next case doesn’t have that luxury. Why? Because she ate hers! It all started when American woman Jennifer was just 5 years old, and began to pick at the sponge from her seat in the family car and eat it.

Since then, her addiction only spiraled, to the point where she’s now munching on mattresses. I’m not entirely sure how someone chews their way through a mattress, although Jennifer claims to be able to eat through a square foot of the stuff per day. That’d mean in just over a month, she’d have chowed through a king sized bed mattress!

Over the last 20 years Jennifer’s chewed through a whopping 8 mattresses including not only her own, but also her mother’s! But the biggest concern is that, mattress eating isn’t the healthiest diet choice. Doctors have repeatedly warned her that mattress foam is blocking her digestive system, causing food to ferment inside her, resulting in a pungent gassy smell. That’s a thought that won’t let you sleep easy tonight!

Addicted To Dirty Diapers

From constant crying, to sleepless nights, raising a kid can be a pretty daunting task. But undoubtedly the most harrowing aspect is dealing with dirty diapers. Yes, that smell alone is enough to have you hunched over a toilet! Yet for our next case, Keyshia from New York, the smell of dirty diapers isn’t a problem.

In fact, that New Yorker can’t get enough of them. Somehow Keyshia discovered that she liked the smell of dirty diapers. But that’s not all. Keyshia hoards, sniffs and she chews on soiled diapers. And, if things couldn’t get any more barbaric, she claimed the more soiled it is, the better.

And to add another twist, Keyshia didn’t even have kids of her own when that awful addiction began. She actually started sourcing them from her friends’ twins. Over the years she’s collected over 25,000 soiled diapers, equivalent to an entire supply for 6 babies. Man, talk about a dirty habit! Nowadays, Keyshia has a kid of her own. Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if that was just for easy access to a constant supply of dirty diapers.

Eating Ashes

Grieving is never easy, especially when it concerns someone close to you. Sadly, Casie, from ‘My Strange Addiction’ knows that feeling all too well. Casie met her husband Sean in 2009. The couple from Tennessee were virtually inseparable until tragically, Sean lost his life following a lethal asthma attack in 2011. After being stricken with grief, Casie refused to let Sean leave her side, carrying his ashes in an urn everywhere she went, from the grocery store, to the movies.

However, one day Casie’s comforting practice led to her spilling some of Sean’s ashes. Devastating as that’d be, you’d expect her to sweep them up. But thinking it’d be disrespectful to wipe her ‘husband’ away, she instead decided to lick him off her fingers!

Even worse, since her first dab, she hasn’t been able to stop dipping her fingers, licking Sean’s ashes as much as 5 times per day. Yes, she’s become addicted to eating her husband’s ashes! To make matters even more tragic, Casie described the taste, like: ‘rotten eggs, sand and sandpaper’.

Drinking Urine

While we’re on the topic of disgusting dependencies, that brings us to the story of Carrie. If you’ve watched survival shows, you’ll know one of the rules of the wilderness is that drinking your own pee can save you from succumbing to dehydration.

In reality, drinking your own pee means your re-consuming toxins that your body’s already tried to remove, potentially leading to more harm than good. Yet, despite the risks and sharp stench, our next case, Carrie, is supposedly addicted to drinking her own urine! She’s been indulging in that peculiar practice for many years, swallowing around 80 ounces, or around 10 glasses per day, drinking almost all the urine that comes out of her body.

But apparently that wasn’t enough for Carrie, as she also uses a Neti pot to inhale her pee nasally! Carrie is so addicted to pee, she apparently uses it to brush her teeth, and rubs aged urine onto her skin as a form of moisturizer. Over the years, there have been many scientific claims that drinking urine hosts a variety of health benefits however, there is no modern research that supports that. So whether Carrie started that with healthy intentions or not, it’s not too controversial to say that if you’re rubbing pee into your skin intentionally, there’s something really wrong with you.

Balloon Obsession

Balloons! Perfect for everything from birthdays to weddings. And that’s exactly what one mother was going for when she brought a blue balloon to cheer up her son while he was admitted to hospital. And fair to say it worked in brightening his mood.

In fact, it worked a little too well. Her son, Julius, was instantly besotted with his balloon, starting an obsession with them that’s lasted over 50 years. Today, things have gotten so intense that Julius has more than 50,000 balloons in his house.

He’s even got a ‘balloon sanctuary’, which if you’re wondering is just a room full of balloons. But that’s not even the half of it. According to Julius, he’s developed a love for the rubbery objects. Yes, it's safe to say that his mom cheered Julius up by bringing him that balloon. In fact, he’s bursting with love for the things now!

Inflatable Toy Obsession

Shocking as it may sound, Julius isn’t the only person to have fallen head over heels for an air-filled item. Our next case, Mark, grew up in California, but he didn’t receive much love. According to him, even his own mother didn’t show him much affection. So, Mark decided to look for love in other places, non-people places.

Around the age of 14, he purchased an inflatable whale for his swimming pool. You can see where that is going, can’t you? Yes, before long Mark was getting all the attention he needed from his blow-up whale. As time progressed, his eerie infatuation only grew. Over the next 6 years, he accumulated 15 inflatable toys.

Rather than use his inflatable crew for swimming support, he’d constantly hang out with them inside his house; eating, watching TV and napping with them! As shown on ‘My Strange Addiction’, even today he refuses to live without them! To make it even more extreme, Mark also had a favorite inflatable; a yellow dragon named Lila, who he called the ‘love of his life’.

I hope you were amazed at these stories of people with insane addictions! Thanks for reading.