My Strange Addiction

Apparently jumping on the Hollywood bandwagon and seeking to capitalize on the rash of other addiction-oriented shows on television, TLC's show My Strange Addiction seeks to profile average people with supposedly life-threatening addictions...like bodybuilding. And manicures. I shit you not.





There are many, many aspects of My Strange Addiction which separate it from other addiction shows--mainly the lack of depth, with one "addict" being allotted roughly 11 minutes of screen time, 2 "addicts" per episode plus commercials. Consequently they leave out integral elements of backstory. And I put the word addict in quotations above because the majority of conditions they show aren't technically addictions. They would be more accurately termed fetishes, or quirks, or mental conditions which have more specific names and don't fall into the category of addiction (like trichotillomania). Probably a third of the addictions are actually pica. Some of them are potentially life-threatening, like eating dryer sheets, but most are worth no more than a sideways glance. The vast majority of people featured on the show are perfectly functioning, and their "addictions" don't interfere with their lives other than the ridiculous amount of money they waste on random shit. In the example vid above, I certainly understand that bodybuilding can be dangerous when not done properly, but if someone's goal is to look like a real-life Hulk, that's their prerogative and frankly there's nothing wrong with it.

The other obnoxious element of the show is their calculations, like "Lauren works out up to six hours a day six days a week... That's more than 1,800 hours a year" because, so what? The amount of time someone spends on a particular activity in a year is a way to measure addiction or something? Some of them make more sense than others, "like so-and-so eats so many dryer sheets a year" but again is it supposed to measure addiction or what? And this one is particularly inane. The numbers feel incredibly superficial and sensationalistic, and kind of make me feel guilty for making light of people's emotional turmoil. Not to mention most of the people on the show are obnoxious as hell. I do genuinely feel bad for some of the "addicts" who often do feel self-conscious about their problems, but seriously, I just watched the one about a woman who is "addicted" to collecting rats. One, that's not an addiction, it's animal hoarding and treating it as an addiction is not going to solve the problem, and two her daughter is a nasty immature airhead. Seriously, your reason for wanting your mom to stop collecting rats is because "they're so gross!!1" Uh, that's your fucking problem? And makes you sound like a self-centered child and frankly if I had to pick a side I'd go with rat lady.

In conclusion, the latest season of My Strange Addiction leaves me wondering what the execs over at TLC are smoking, so I can stay the hell away from whatever it is that results in producing shitty television like this. To end this rant let me leave you with another inane addiction...buying shoes:

As much as we poke fun about loveless losers / loveshy (I never took part in all that drama, so maybe I'm misquoting something) I watched the episode where the guy was in an imaginary relationship with his Realdoll.

This guy was the most non-creepy real-doll owner out there. They could have found someone a lot worse. His small apartment, couple shelves filled with anime DVDs and fantasy novels were spotless and organized. He even lined up his remotes on the glass coffee table. He'd go to work, then come home, and say hi to his Realdoll like it was a wife.

As owl said, it's not an addiction, it's quite clearly social phobia / adapting to anxiety and social norms in a modern world. Guy is terrified of real relationships, so he replaces unstable humans with a doll. I'm not sure if it's entirely healthy, but it's just not an addiction. It's something else.

Though I have to say, his taste in clothes for his doll is terrible. :/

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The Learning Channel used to have great TV shows like Medical Detectives.

Now it's gone totally off the deep end. And don't get me started on Toddlers & Tiaras.

Bad Luck Charm wrote:

The Learning Channel used to have great TV shows like Medical Detectives.

Now it's gone totally off the deep end. And don't get me started on Toddlers & Tiaras.

I've always wanted to put the pageant girls in a room with the most snot-nosed elitist Lolitas and see who would win.

OMG, did you see the one with the woman who was eating her husband's ashes!?

No, thankfully, but the episode has been enshrined forever on Youtube:





Seriously, that made me feel so bad for that poor woman. If her husband only died two months prior to that filming she's not addicted, she's grieving. Not only that, but...the ashes are a finite thing. Once she eats them all there's not going to be any left, so what's going to happen to her "addiction" then? She clearly needs help, and not the kind that reality tv can offer.

I only saw a few minutes of this show... about the woman who was obsessed with picking her own scabs.

I couldn't watch after that. D:

Reepicheep-chan wrote:

OMG, did you see the one with the woman who was eating her husband's ashes!?

Life imitating South Park? Did she mix it in milk? Okay I'll be serious, that is a bit, chilling.

I started to watch the episode Sakurelf linked to because of my curiosity about people who become attached to their Real Dolls, and realized I've seen that particular doll owner a few times in various documentaries/news magazine-type shows about Real Doll owners. I then lost interest, because the other person in the episode - the scab picker - doesn't even seem interesting in a train-wreck sort of way.

And from what the rest of you are describing, it really sounds like this should would be better placed on Discovery Health (if only it still existed) as "I Suffer From a Disorder You Have Never Heard Of" or some similar title.