Title: Strange
Habits
Topic: Body
Rituals
Relation: Body Ritual among the Nacirema, pages
334-339 in Chapter 33 of Conformity and Conflict.
Source: MTV’s
True Life: I Have a Strange Habit
Description:
In this True Life episode, cameras follow
around two girls dealing with two abnormal body rituals.
Commentary/Analysis:
Emily has richotillomania,
which is an impulse control disorder and causes her to pull out her hair and
look at the hair follicles. When she is
under stress, she will start touching and twisting her hair almost as if in a
trance. When she finds a favorable hair, she will pluck it out and stare at the
follicle, looking for a unique one. She can spend fifteen minutes pulling out
her hair until the big amount of hair lying on her lap pulls her out of the
trance. This is a daily ritual, which
she is unable to control or stop because the tugging of hair is relaxing and soothing
to her.
It is highly damaging to her scalp
and she has big patches of missing hair. She has seen multiple psychologists
but none have been able to help her. Her family is worried and is working with
her on ways to control her impulses. One way is to wear a hat so that there is
a barrier when her hand unthinkingly starts moving to her scalp, ready to start
pulling.
Kayliah is addicted to eating emery
boards. Her condition is similar to pica, a disorder in which a person has an
appetite for eating non-food items such as clay or paper. She first licks it
then put the board in her mouth to chew it.
She performs this ritual multiple times daily in front of her friends
and family. Kayliah starts getting
anxious when she has not chewed on an emery board. It is a form of stress
relief for her. She is worried about the effects of this habit on her health
but she is unable to stop herself.
The emery boards hurt her teeth
sometimes when she chews on them and if the boards are too big can make her
stomach hurt. The nail files can even
give her migraines.
Emily sees a hair specialist and
decides to start wearing a wig so that she can stop pulling her hair and start
pursing a career in modeling, looking the best she can. The wig helps her control
her urges because she cannot get to the hair follicles. As well as wearing the wig, Emily goes to see
a therapist who gives her coping mechanisms of dealing with her emotions that
keeps her hands busy.
Kayliah goes to the dentist and
finds out her habit has been wearing down the enamel on her teeth, which can
lead to tooth loss. Hearing that news
shocks her into wanting to make a change in her life and stop eating the emery
boards.
Even these body rituals seem extreme
and weird there is an emotional/physical pull for these girls. I am sure that people from other countries
view some of Americans’ daily body rituals we do without thinking as very odd
and peculiar.
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