Meet the Scarface of baby powder – a 44-year-old woman from Devon named Lisa Anderson.
Lisa has spent £8,000 on her bizarre addiction which sees her consume a tub of talcum powder every day. She started eating the powder 15 years ago when she felt the urge to while drying off her son after a bath.
The mum-of-five has since spent 8 grand on Johnson’s Baby Powder, and says she sneaks off to the bathroom every half an hour to get her fix.
Lisa told The Sun:
I do get it’s a bit weird – but it just has this nice soapy taste.
I’ve always had it in the house and would douse myself with it after having a bath or shower.
And then one day I remember being in the bathroom and the smell was just overpowering.
There was a bit of dust that had come off the top of the bottle.
I had this sudden urge to eat it and I just couldn’t fight it. I just licked it off my hand and really enjoyed it. It just hit this spot.
Just like someone with an addiction, I was just having more and more each time I went to have some.
The longest I’ve been without it is two days. That was the worst time of my life. I hated it.
Doctors reckon Lisa has Pica syndrome – the compulsion to eat items with no nutritional value such as stones, dirt, paint and… talcum powder. I’d say that’s a spot on diagnosis then.
Lisa kept her condition secret for 10 years before her suspicious partner barged into the bathroom one day and caught her in the act.
Lisa has now agreed to go to counselling so that’s good. Pretty amazing that she went 15 years without medical intervention but better late than never I guess:
Despite doing this for years and years I sat down earlier this year and thought this just cannot be normal.
My partner doesn’t like me doing it because of the links it has to cancer and the impact it could be having on my health.
I went online and did my own bit of research then I decided to go to my GP.
Ah yes, the links to cancer. Literally eating talcum powder for 15 years can’t be good for you, that’s for sure. Though probably healthier than snorting baby powder which is probably someone else’s addiction we’ll blog about one day. I wonder if Lisa ever tried snorting talcum powder? Maybe should’ve – would have lasted longer.
