BITTERSWEET
Text & Photos: Marion Sendker
TAKE YOUR PICA: WHEN PEOPLE DEVELOP AN APPETITE FOR PAPER
Paper has next to no nutritious value at all. Yet still there are people who consume it in just about all its forms: Toilet roll, gift wrapping, paper tissues and stationery are staples of their diets. It was its scent that captured the girl’s imagination: toilet roll. It smelled so nice she had to taste it. She was overwhelmed by the desire to run her tongue along the soft, fragrant cellulose fibres, to bite into it, to chew it and swallow it. So she gave in, tore off a sheet and stuffed it in to her mouth. The scene kept repeating itself for half a year; a couple of sheets of toilet roll each day. Then she stopped - and only several years later came back to the roll. And then just a few sheets weren’t enough to satisfy her appetite. ”Whenever I’m afraid or under a lot of pressure I stuff some 25 sheets into my mouth and eat them within a couple of minutes. I am addicted!« The girl prefers not to give her real name, nor tell us where she‘s from. She is ashamed of her penchant – or should that be »addiction«? But she wants to speak out, share her story; and maybe even stop eating toilet roll. She has
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SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016