EDIBLE-NON-EDITABLE: THE ATTRACTION FOR UNITY. Picacism And Trichotyllophagia

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

There is such a well-known educational children's game "Edible-inedible", which teaches young children to distinguish what they can eat and what not.

The advertisement for this game looks something like this: “To grow big, strong, smart and healthy, you need to eat well! Do you know what you can eat and what not? You will need to determine which of the two items can be eaten and which is not."

But for some children, inedible objects are edible, they are in certain conditions of development that are called "nourish" children and bring them comfort.

Eating inedible infants and children (from ICD-10, F98.4)

Persistent cravings for non-food items (such as earth, paint, shavings, etc.). This symptom may be part of a deeper mental disorder (such as autism); it can also manifest itself as a relatively independent psychopathological behavior. Only in this, the latter case, you can use this heading. Perverted appetite is more common among mentally retarded children. Cases with concurrent mental retardation should be coded according to the underlying diagnosis.

Obsessive pulling out of one's own hair, which is then swallowed, is called trichotyllophagia.

Children are more likely to be affected than adults. The literature [for example, Trichotillomania: clinic, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment, Med.news, No. 1, 2014, etc.] indicates that this disorder occurs in families with material problems, difficulties in family relationships, with rivalry between children, in children experiencing stress when moving to a new home, moving to a new school, with problems in relationships with high school students, with studies and teachers.

In my practice, I only once encountered trichotillomania (compulsive pulling of hair; in this case, eyebrows pulled out), which arose in my 28-year-old client against a background of severe stress and which she managed to overcome quickly enough. I came across trichotyllophagia and its attendant interest in eating inedible objects in the memories of my six adult clients.

In all cases known to me (of which there are certainly quite a few), children have a desire to eat an object belonging to their mothers. In five cases, women were brought up by cold, egocentric and rejecting mothers; in one case, trichotyllophagia and at about the same time an interest in eating inedible objects arose after the mother had to leave for work. Thus, in all six cases, the children experienced maternal deprivation. These phenomena can be seen as a kind of self-care in the way that small children could do. It seems that eating one's own hair and inedible objects that belong to the mother (according to the stories of the clients, these were lipsticks, beads, torn off parts of the belt, buttons, cream, cigarettes, butts) is the incorporation of a positive maternal object and connection with it. On the one hand, these children ate themselves in the absence of a nourishing mother, on the other, they attempted to satisfy their hunger for maternal care through the appropriation of the eaten items that belonged to her.

If you notice that your child begins to develop receding hairline, disappeared eyelashes or eyebrows, he too often tends to eat something unsuitable for food (to distinguish it from children's curiosity), has begun to behave too nervous, be sure to pay attention to this. It may well happen that a simple consolation, spending time together, will help the child to relax and cope with such habits.