My Strange Addiction: Glass Eating and Skin Bleaching
What makes eating glass appealing to him? Do you think its addiction to eating glass or addiction to attention? Why haven't the health risks stopped him? Why does he continue to do it after the doctor proves it to be lethal? Is eating bullets a cry for help? Why does he only eat one type of bullet? Is he addicted to the risk of these addictions? What would happen if a bullet were to go off/ break apart inside him?
Why is it socially acceptable for girls to go tanning and not for girls to bleach their skin, when essentially they have the same goal of changing skin color? She puts bleach on her skin 20 times per day, it is even normal to put lotion on that many times a day? How must her skin be reacting to all this application? Does she realize how costly this addiction of lotion is?
Which addiction is more dangerous? Which is more relatable to you? Do you think addictions have to do with a struggle of self identity? How these people ignore the feeling of their loved ones?
This man in the video claims that the appeal of glass eating comes through the texture of it in his mouth as he consumes it. In my opinion, someone doesn't just decide they want to eat glass one day because they think it looks like it tastes good. Its a cry for attention in which he is forced to do drastic things, such as eating glass, in order to receive. Perhaps as a child, he was ignored or mistreated by his parents and the only way to get their affection was through harming himself and doing radical things. Now that he has the attention from the entire nation through My Strange Addiction, he will continue to do it because he knows he has everyone watching him. He wants to be known as the guy who eats glass so therefore the health risks and lethal nature of his actions will not stop him from doing it.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of tanning versus bleaching skin, there really isn't much of a difference between the two things. Both activities have participants with the commonality of wanting to change their skin color and both have very deadly risks. Obviously tanning is a much more common act than the bleaching of ones skin is so tanning would be the more accepted thing for people to do. Applying bleach to ones skin 20 times per day is a completely ludicrous thing to waste time on. However, if someone wants to feel beautiful and feel accepted and the only way to satisfy those needs are through the bleaching of the skin, than no time is actually being wasted.
Both addictions are equally dangerous because both have huge health risks so posing the question of which is more dangerous does not make much sense. Bleaching of the skin may be slightly relatable to me as I have gone tanning in order to change the color of my skin but not to the point of doing it 20+ times per day. Addictions have everything to do with the struggle of self identity because they have to be lacking something in order to pick up such radical habits into their lives. Finally, these addicts have gotten to the point where the only thing that truly makes them feel better, or perhaps more accepted, is through satisfying their addictions. No person, loved one, or action can do anything to change that until they get serious mental help and make the pledge to sobriety.
The guy eating glass in the video appears to be addicted to eating glass and bullets, but I think underneath it all he is addicted to the attention. He admits that when he has no audience, he is less likely to eat glass. When around a crowd, he loves to get their attention at all costs. He says he got the idea from a book, which I see as an idea for attention. This makes me believe that if he eventually decides to stop eating glass, he may start something else. Even with glass, he escalates the risk by eating bullets. When that's not enough, what will he eat next? Even though he hasn't eaten much glass since the meeting with the doctor, he doesn't seem too worried about his health. It seems the only reason he is trying to stop is for his fiancee.
ReplyDeleteThe girl has an addiction to her appearance rather than an addiction to bleaching her skin. It seems obvious that she is addicted to the bleaching, but she doesn't love herself for who she is. If it wasn't for this problem, she wouldn't be bleaching her skin. She knows how harmful it can be, especially putting lotion on 20 times a day. I believe this is not an addiction, but more of a problem with accepting herself for who she is. She wants to conform with everyone and fit in, but making her skin lighter isn't the correct way of doing so.
I believe the glass eating could be a larger risk than the bleaching. Bleaching is practically tanning, which also has dangerous effects. Yet, people still tan and it is seen as a social normality. Eating glass however seems to pose more of a risk to life or death. All it takes is for him to get sick and throw the glass up to hurt his esophagus. I think the girl struggles with her self identity because she wants to be more accepted, and the guy struggles with attention. Both are curable if they work on who they are and who they want to be. The girl can learn to accept who she is and the guy can learn that he doesn't need to do something so outlandish to catch everyone's attention. I believe both listen to their loved ones because they are reducing their use of the glass/bleach by the end of the video.
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ReplyDeleteThe man addicted to eating glass finds both the attention as well as the texture feeling of eating glass appealing and addictive. I find it hard to believe that this man is actually addicted to the taste or pleasure he gets from physically eating glass; I think it is more realistic to assume he loves the feeling of being the face of attention, perhaps so much that one could call it an addiction. Although a doctor has made him aware of numerous health risks to eating glass and bullets, he ceases to stop, most likely because thinks he is able to get away with everything without harmful effects, he has not been severely hurt at all in the past. I believe he eats bullets for the same reason as the glass; he does say he gets more of a rush from eating bullets because they seem to be more potentially dangerous. This man only eats one type of bullets because he is able to swallow it and has not seen any severe effects eating any yet. More than anything I believe this man is obsessed with the “rush” feeling he gets out of these acts combined with the great feeling he gets from being the center of attention. If a bullet were to leak inside him he would have a good chance of being severely intoxicated, it may be lethal.
ReplyDeleteI don’t see a difference between bleaching ones skin and tanning. Both procedures are done with the same intent to alter skin color, and both seem to pose similar health risks. The only reason i can see tanning being more “socially acceptable” is because the media portrays it to be so. The amount of times this girl puts bleach on her skin seems to vary according to her stress levels, I think it may have become for her a way to help her relieve stress or cope with stress at least. In no way is it normal to apply lotion or skin beach as much as she does each day. She is somewhat aware of the health risks she is taking by using the bleach lotion yet she dismisses it. She doesn’t seem to understand or take into consideration any costs of her obsessive use of bleach lotion. Her addiction is not only costing her money, but time spent with family, friends, outside, and costing her by posing risks to her own health.
The man’s addiction to ingesting glass and bullets comes across as more potentially dangerous to me, although both addicts pose great and potentially lethal health risks. I don’t find either addiction to be relatable, however if I had to choose one, I could perhaps compare the man’s addiction to ingesting glass and bullets to being gluttonous about eating favorite foods or desserts. Absolutely these addictions reflect a struggle with self-esteem and identity. If the girl was confident and satisfied with herself as is, she would never of started the maladaptive behavior in the first place. The man’s behavior seems to represent a cry for more attention, if he was satisfied with himself and not so dependent on external attention he would never of started his addictive habits either. Both people blatantly ignore their loved ones feelings and advice for getting help. Their ignorance toward loved ones most likely again relates back to their poor self-esteem. Their fixation on escaping their low self-confidence seems to be the root of most of their problems.
From my point of view, it is the addiction to attention that makes man addicted to eat glass. Since it is impossible for a man addicts to eat glass because some factors which related to chemistry. According to medical research, SiO2, which is the bases of glass, can’t cause the addiction of body. According to these factors, it is the emotional factors that made him addicted to eat glass. As for risks, I would like to take computer games as an example. In China, most parents concern that it is not a good idea to let their children to play computer games too much since it is bad for their school work. Those kids know this and want to get good grade in school, however, they can’t control their self sometimes. This example shows why the man still eats glass though he knows that he is under risk. I think his performance is like drug taking, nevertheless, there are also some differences. Drug taking is a kind of physical addiction, while eating glass is a kind of emotional addiction. Since addicting to eat glass is not as easy as taking drugs, we took those people who are addicted to drugs as a kind of “strange addiction”. Eating bullets is a same thing as eating glass. As for the question that why does he only eat one kind of bullet, I think it is just a habit or maybe he just like the fashion of it. I think he would change his mind if a bullet goes off inside him because I believe that addiction can be overcome and habit can be changed.
ReplyDeleteAs for the girl’s addiction, I think different people have different views towards beautiful. Some of them may like white skin; some of them are prefer black skin. It is not strange for the girl wants to have white skin. I think it is absolutely not normal to put bleach 20 times a day. Though lotion has less damage to human body, it is also bad for our health to use it so may times a day because there is mercury in lotion. Use bleach so many times a day is quite terrible to her skin rather than good for it. I saw an interesting reply on you tube which wrote that “being dark makes her ugly but being really fat is ok. That makes sense”. I thought the reason that she use bleach more than 20 times a day is not because she want to be white, she is actually don’t like being dark and want to hurt herself. From my point of view, it is that her psychological disease causes her addition to using bleach. Being dark is not means ugly; the important is that how we treat our mind.
As far as I concern, eating glass is more dangerous than putting bleach. I feel scared when I saw the graphic of X-ray which shows that there are several bullets in his body. Eating glass is a strange and harmful addition and should be prevented. I think put bleach have a little relation to me. When I was in middle school, I was a little bit addicted to stimulating beverage. Because I thought drinking this kind of beverage is good for my concentration. However, similar to lotion, drinking too much stimulating beverage would have a bad influence on my health. Because of this reason, I don’t drink it anymore. In order to cut out addiction, I believe that everyone would have a struggle. Everyone would pay lots of effort in order to get rid of addition. For example, my grand feather likes to smoke though he knows smoke is bad for his health. He does not ignore the feeling of me and my parents; however, it is hard for him to abstain from it. Addiction is cause by habit, and habit is not easy to change. That’s why some of addicts seems ignore the feeling of their love ones. They need time.
I feel that the appeal come from the attention he gets from consuming the light blubs because at the party he continued to eat the light blubs after his friends ask him to stop. In my opinion he has physiological problems that he needs to over come in order to break away from this addiction to attention. I feel that he has not stopped eating glass because the attention outweighs the health risks; even though his friends have made it clear that glass can damage your digestion system. The main problems with eating the bullets that some bullets are made of lead and that can cause sever neurological problems and cancer. There is zero chance that a bullet goes off in his stomach and little chance that the bullet comes out of the casing.
ReplyDeleteTanning is a process that occurs naturally and you are not applying massive amounts of chemicals to your skin. She clearly has issues with her confindence and I feel that is the main source of her need to bleach. It is clear that it truly is not actually doing anything to make her skin any lighter. She seems very closed minded when she is being told that the bleaching can cause serious health problems.
I feel that their addiction are steming from a lack of confidence in themselves and they are using their addictions to get attention to help them overcome their self loathing. They are not thinking how their actions effect their love ones.
I do not think Josh finds glass eating appealing, rather he enjoys the attention as he mentioned. Based off his appearance I assumed he did it for the attention with his chops and hair style. He is not oblivious to the risk involved and his friends even make him aware of the risk. He has no regard for his safety. While he has begun to eat less glass after the doctor, it hasn't stopped him completely because he has a knack for attention. I don't think eating bullets is a cry for help it's just another way of getting attention. Josh said he eats the .22 caliber because it is a smaller caliber bullet, so it makes sense he would chose that size. I think it is very possible that he enjoys the rush of the risks when he eats bullets and glass. It can be the same as adrenaline junkies when they jump out of airplanes. A bullet going off inside him can be life threatening. The gun powder can be poisonous and the doctor even said the bullet can tear his esophagus if he throws up while they are in his stomach.
ReplyDeleteI do not see a difference between tanning and bleaching because they have the same risk essentially. Candice is going over board though, using the bleach up to twenty times in one day. I don't think it is healthy to use any substance up to twenty times a day, especially not one that has mercury in it. I assume the lotion is killing her skin cells because bleach is used in cleaning supplies because of its' ability to kill germs. I believe she knows the risk but she is too self-conscious about her skin color. The doctor even told her the risk, which helped Candice cut back to applying it only once a day.
The glass and bullet eating addiction is more dangerous in the present but in the future the skin bleaching can be more harmful because it can cause cancer. Neither addiction is more appealing to me because I do not have the desire to do either, I am happy with my appearance, and who eats glass? I think certain addictions are related with appearances, specifically girls who tan and bleach their skin. I think people understand their families concerns but are more concerned with their addictions. In a sense they are selfish but they can't help their addiction on the other hand.
As far as the glass eating goes, it seems more like a cry for attention than anything else. He bluntly states that he's addicted to attention and seeing that he is a performer, he's probably used to all eyes being on him. Also, he claims that he tends to do it more in public and rarely ever does it when he's alone. This also leads me to believe that it might be more of an infatuation with the rush he gets from the danger of eating glass and bullets. However, because he claims that he gets such a 'high' from it, it could technically be considered an addiction. When you put your body in danger, your brain releases adrenaline and endorphins to prepare to deal with pain. Since there could possibly a chemical component to what he's doing, it could technically be an addiction to eating glass and bullets.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Candace bleaching her skin, it's hard to tell if it's really an addiction or more of a way for her to fit in. Like the guy that eats glass, it seems more like a cry for attention and a starvation to be like everyone else. Although it has the same intentions as tanning and is basically just as harmful, i feel like skin bleaching is a bit more extreme and isn't seen as sort of a norm of society.
To me it seems like eating glass and bullets is more dangerous. The fact that it can penetrate the lining of your esophagus and stomach and possibly sit in your intestines seems extremely dangerous to me. Additionally, I do think it is a struggle with self-identity and self-image. I feel like they are very self-concious and try to find something to make it seem like they fit in or bring attention to themselves.
I feel as if Josh does not particularly enjoy eating glass, but he really only wants to attract the attention of others. People who have addictions don't tend to listen to their friends even if they know what is best for their friend. So no matter if his friends tried to stop him or not, it is really up to the addict himself to want to stop. Just as people who enjoy getting a rush from roller coasters or skydiving, eating dangerous things could give Josh the feeling of power or invincibility. The fact that he can cheat death so far will intensify that feeling Josh may crave.
ReplyDeleteAs far as bleaching ones skin, all it is is that she has body image issues. That's really why people change their bodies around, is to fit in with the social crowd of wherever they may be. Using bleach just seems quite an extreme route to go for pale skin though, I do not know why one would use it once let alone twenty times a day.
I think the glass eating is more dangerous while in the present time, but as far as long term issues are, the bleaching would be far more dangerous. At least with the glass and bullets, they eventually leave the body. As far as which one I can relate to the most, I would have to say the bleaching one. As I am from California, particularly the Los Angeles region, appearances are everything. However, I tend to go the natural way and go to the beach and tan, not bleach. I do feel that these two addictions are ones that these people use as an escape from personal struggle with self-identity.
Eating the glass, he tried to make it seem that he liked the texture of the glass being chewed but i don't think there is anything about the addiction that has to do with anything but the attention part. He said he loves the reactions he gets at parties when he does it for friends. He seems to think that since he is still okay health wise that he will always be okay. He doesn't mind the occasional cuts on the mouth. He seems to only care about the attention and not his health or relationships with anyone else. Not even his friends seemed impressed after a while because he just took it too far. The risk doesn't affect the addiction, it is purely an addiction to attention. If the Bullet opens he could die from toxicity of the contents from the bullet.
ReplyDeleteThe Addiction to of skin bleaching seems to be mostly just a self image problem. She does not seem to be happy with the way she looks and even though the cream has not changed her tone much at all she thinks it is so she is going to keep trying. It could be seen as more of an addiction though because her skin could become sensitive if she stops using it because it is so used to the cream being applied multiple times every day. She doesn't seem to care about the reactions because she has not seen any negatives yet so she will continue until she gets hurt from it.
The eating glass is by far the more dangerous addiction because it can kill him at anytime while the cream will just hurt over time. I can't really relate to either but i could see how someone would need to do whatever it takes to get attention and how people want to do whatever they can to change the way they look, but i don't understand how someone could take it that far. These people don't have a very strong self image and don't really seem to care about their real relationships that they have like family and girlfriends.
In my eyes this is definitely a case of an addiction to attention. He said he likes the peoples reactions and he said himself that it's probably the attention. The health risks haven't showed up in his case so it is easy for him to just ignore it. He has cut his mouth and found glass in his gums yes, but no serious or long term effects have happened so he doesn't think it is affecting him. He probably is only eating that kind of bullet which I think is a .22 because it is small enough for him too. I do not think it's a cry for help it is just more attention and he doesn't quit when he finds out it's threat because he feels like he has to do it. Bleaching your skin is life threatening according to one of the people close to her and that's why it isn't socially acceptable. Eating bullets in my opinion is more dangerous and I could definitely put bleach on my skin before I ate bullets so that hits closer to home. Self identity can play a huge role in addiction, and they do not want to stop, they feel this addiction is more important than how their loved ones feel so they just continue to do this.
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