Blog @ Work

Pagophagia or just irritating?

How do you feel about some one chewing ice at the table? Would you speak to someone if they were chewing ice or would you ignore it? (BCoF)

I read an article in the Cosmopolitan (http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/news/a33202/i-was-addicted-to-chewing-ice/...), on a woman addicted to chewing ice.Once diagnosed and treated for anemia she overcame this addiction.

I was very much surprised by this. I thought it was just irritating behavior at worst.

Pica is characterized by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive, such as ice (pagophagia).

Pagophagia is a form of the disorder Pica involving the compulsive consumption of ice or iced drinks. It has been associated with iron deficiency anemia, and shown to respond to iron supplementation, leading some investigators to postulate that some forms of pica may be the result of nutritional deficiency.

So in answer to this prompt I would hesitate to correct people’s behavior like chewing ice at the table since I don’t know if it’s just a habit or if it’s a serious condition that needs attention.

I feel that is more often the case in this day and age, when confronted with abnormal behavior or behavior that is commonly frowned upon because it is not nice, offensive or rude or in any other way different from what we perceive as normal.

Can you comment on it or keep in mind that something maybe off here? I am not sure. All I know is that in getting older I tend to remind myself often that we are all different and that it’s harder and harder for me to disapprove certain types of behavior, even if In don’t like it. Apart from really abnormal or criminal behavior in which the line is much clearer. But most situations apply to that grey area in which I am not always sure how to react. Am I mellowing down?

The next time I am confronted with somebody chewing ice and it irritates me, I will ask if anemia is the cause.