Claire Louise Owen started chewing sponges when she was 14 after developing the urge during her first period.
A brave mum has told how she has had to stop buying sponges for her home – as she can’t resist eating them.
The 44-year-old, who says she was too embarrassed to speak to her GP, believes she suffers from an eating disorder called pica, which makes her crave non-food items with no nutritional value. ‘I like the ripping sensation, putting it in my mouth, ripping, chewing and swallowing it. It’s the texture that I like – they taste horrible.‘So if I had a bar of chocolate or a bag of crisps, if I have some sponge after, it gives me the flavour for longer.’Claire prefers cheaper sponges with smaller holes, and would keep one in her bedroom drawer, taking two to three bits a day to make it last a week.
Believing an iron deficiency could be the cause of her addiction, it has taken her years to understand more about pica and why it has such a hold over her life.Pica is an eating disorder that involves eating items that are not typically thought of as food and that do not contain significant nutritional value, such as hair, dirt, and paint chips.
If the behaviours aren’t caused by malnutrition or don’t stop after nutritional treatment, a variety of behavioural interventions are available.Claire, who runs her own coaching business The Soberholic – where her mission is to ‘share the benefits of a sober life’ – said: ‘It gets worse in the stressful times in my life, if I’m on my period or run down – and when I was a teenager I would pick bits of the sofa and eat it.
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