- We're gonna check out some more strange addictions.
Remember, we're leading with empathy first,
- My name is Mark. (upbeat country music)
I'm 20-years-old, and I'm in a relationship
with 15 inflatable animals.
My mother really (gentle music)
wasn't there for me when I was a child.
First time I hugged my inflatable whale,
I actually started feeling all that love and compassion.
- Could be oxytocin, (text popping)
which is one of the hormones
that your body releases when you're cuddling.
This is actually why animal...
I mean, it's a little bit different, obviously,
but, why animal therapy works quite well,
especially in those newly diagnosed with autism.
Because animals are not judgemental,
so you can show an animal affection, and pet them,
and enjoy their company without them judging you.
And there's less risk there for humans to be hurt,
so they enjoy their time with animals.
That's why equine therapy (text popping)
does quite well,
emotional support dogs,
et cetera. (keyboard clacks)
- [Narrator] Now, he's so dependent on his inflatables.
He can't be separated from them for more than a day.
- This is, again, entering the the realm
of what we categorize a disorder,
because he can't be without them.
So, as a result, it can impact his ability
to live a fulfilling life,
reaching his major milestones,
going to work, having relationships,
et cetera. (keyboard clacks)
- If I could marry Lila, I would,
because I am that much in love with her.
- [Narrator] But Mark and Lila
haven't taken their relationship to the next level yet.
- Me and Lila dragon don't have sex together.
We keep our relationship clean.
- You know, we've talked about objectophilia,
which is when someone falls in love with an inanimate object
or has sexual desire for an inanimate object.
And there's been theories as to why this occurs.
They're saying there's some pattern
with those who have been diagnosed with autism,
those who have these sensory situations where,
in feeling certain things,
there's a crossover neurologically,
that when they see this inflatable dragon
that they also engage their sexual desires.
Not because they've trained that way,
but because the body's
made that way. (keyboard clacks)
- The therapist helped me realized
that my inflatables are getting me used
to more socializing with them rather than real people.
From now on, I'm gonna start spending
a little less time each day with my inflatables.
I'll still have my inflatables in my life,
but they're not gonna be the primary part of my life.
(inspirational music)
- If something's going on mentally
where you are finding a lot of value in these inflatables,
just taking them away abruptly
can cause more harm and trauma.
Because as you can tell,
this person has an adverse childhood event.
I'm actually curious about his job situation,
whose house that is, how does he provide for himself?
Because those are the questions
that you really need to learn about this person,
more so than what the diagnosis is,
or what his romantic life is with these animals.
That's what's gonna tell me who he is as a human,
and what impact these inflatables are having on his life.
- I'm Amy. - I'm Becky
- [Both] And we're 45-years-old.
- And we're addicted
to being identical. - To being identical.
- What? (laughs)
Addicted to being identical?
You either are twins or you're not twins.
- For some reason, Amy- - For some reason-
- had gained a teeny more weight than me.
- Yeah. - And people would go like,
"Oh, you're the big twin. You're the smaller twin."
And literally from then on out...
- Oh, yeah. - We eat-
- Big time. - the same exact bites of food
and drink the same sips of drink.
- You know, I know some sisters and brothers
that are like this, but not to this degree.
So I feel like they are closer
than what is expected of normal.
But that's just cultural expectations.
(keyboard clacks) (playful music)
See, this is where it can cause a disruption
in someone's life to the point
where it can become a disorder.
If you can't be apart from each other
for more than 30 minutes,
you have to sleep in the same bedroom,
that makes accommodations
difficult. (keyboard clacks)
- My main concern is that
one would actually die before the other,
and the other one would be lost completely without.
- I mean, I'm not gonna lie,
I would say that's probably a little bit
of an irrational worry.
Later in life, absolutely,
you need to start planning for that.
But right now, as young women,
to decide whether or not they need to learn
how to be without each other
shouldn't be based on the fact that one of them may die.
That's a fairly lower risk thing to worry about.
- I've never heard of them
being in a long-term relationship,
and that concerns me a lot.
- That concerns you,
but what if they don't wanna be in a long-term relationship?
That could be totally
appropriate. (keyboard clacks)
- [Jillian] So I set Becky up on a blind date.
- [Phillip] Hi, Becky. Becky?
- Hi. - And the show obviously
tells them both to go. - Don't be weird out, but-
- Twins.
- Beautiful. - My sister and I...
I told Jillian I would go
on this blind date. - Absolutely, yeah.
- And I technically lie.
- She just left a little part out.
- [Becky] We just left a little part out.
- [Amy] Which is me.
- It's not exactly how I envisioned it.
- So has anyone of you- - They have the same watch.
I love it. - have been married or...
(laughs) tell me. - Wow.
We're kinda- - Well-
- married to each other. - To each other.
- Yeah, talk about setting up a guy for failure
without giving him a heads up.
The date didn't fail
because there's something different about them.
The date failed because the guy didn't get a heads up
that they're very unique.
It's like setting up someone,
who doesn't want to be married, on a date
and then the person goes and says,
"Do you wanna get married?" And they say, "No."
And then the date ends horribly.
(air whooshing) Could have seen that one.
(keyboard clacks) (tense music)
- Oh! (person screaming)
- That's a lot of cockroaches.
You know what's funny? (keyboard clacks)
I grew up in Brooklyn and okay, maybe it wasn't that bad,
but there were cockroaches in certain areas
all over the place. (keyboard clacks)
- Hi, my name is Shelby Counterman, I am nine years old,
and I collect cockroaches.
- Oh. Oh wow. (Shelby smacking)
She kisses them. (keyboard clacks)
- When I started collecting roaches, I only had five.
- You know, what I just found out the other day?
There are roaches or some kind of insects
that look like roaches, that breathe through their body
that make kissing sounds,
and it literally kept me up all night.
Can you imagine this thing (hand thuds)
walking next to you, and it's going (imitates hissing)
- [Shelby] Now, I have thousands.
(playful music)
(bell dings) - Wow.
(bell dings)
- I mean, roaches don't, like, bite.
They may scratch you accidentally or something,
but they don't bite.
But they do spread diseases,
like bacteria especially,
salmonella, strep, staph. (air whooshing)
They can even cause cholera, dysentery.
So you gotta be careful
with these roaches. (keyboard clacks)
- I could do without them.
- (chuckles) The father says, "I could do without them."
- These are my Madagascar
hissing cockroaches. (cockroaches hissing)
- I knew some of them hiss.
- [Shelby] Sometimes they're too noisy I'll hiss at them.
- They're not actually hissing,
I think they're breathing. (keyboard clacks)
- They're not harmful at all
except they may be a little stinky
once in a while. (keyboard clacks)
- Yeah, also you're keeping, like,
10,000 of them in, like, a Tupperware container
meant for Legos.
I don't know if that's ideal storage for roaches.
Like why do you need a thousand?
Can you have one roach,
- My name is Samantha. I'm 20 years old.
I consider myself pretty responsible, independent,
like to have fun, and I'm addicted to tanning.
- Oh, tanning is so bad.
I mean, tanning (text whooshing)
is incredibly problematic,
especially as a young person.
If you're below the age of 20 and you tan even once,
your risk of melanoma goes up like 50%.
- [Samantha] My typical tanning day
is going to three different tanning places,
20 minutes in the bed
for an equivalence of an hour a day.
- I think you're almost, like,
guaranteeing yourself cancer
at that point. (keyboard clacks)
Not only are you increasing drastically
your chances of developing cancer,
you're destroying your appearance,
because skin becomes dried out,
becomes poorer quality, looseness occurs.
- [Samantha] Tanning is my everything
because it makes me really happy.
Anytime I'm sad or upset,
going tanning just makes me, like, perk right up.
- There is some evidence showing
that going tanning a lot and then stopping
can cause, like, withdrawal symptoms.
So we try and help that by setting the patients
or working with them to go to therapy
or even take medications.
- I think about tanning when I wake up,
I think about tanning in the shower.
I don't think there's actually ever a point
where I don't think about tanning.
- That's worth exploring.
Is she thinking about,
well, how she feels in the tanning booth?
Is it afterwards?
Is it the appearance?
Is it something she doesn't like about herself?
Like all these are questions that one might ask
in a visit to try and figure out
where the source of thinking about tanning
comes from. (keyboard clacks)
- I'm not really worried about the premature aging
because that's why they have Botox,
plastic surgery, facelifts.
- The problem is that doesn't enhance or solve the problem
of what tanning creates.
Like if the materials themselves, aka your skin,
and the the foundational blocks that make up your skin
are damaged permanently,
all those things that you just discussed do not target
or solve that issue. (keyboard clacks)
This is a a perfect example
of an individual that would benefit
from meeting someone who was also addicted to tanning
and seeing them 10, 20 years later
just to get a sense of what can happen.
'Cause I think that's a good reality,
wake up call from many. (keyboard clacks)
- You're actually very fortunate.
I don't see any signs of skin cancer, which is great,
but the risk of melanoma is still huge in someone like you.
- I'm pretty excited that the doctor
didn't find any skin cancer.
So now I can go home and tell people, "I told you so."
- That's not how it works.
When we say it raises your risk of skin cancer,
it's not right now.
It's across your whole life.
A lot of young people have that mindset of,
"Oh, I don't even wanna live 'till I'm 40 or 70.
I'd rather get all my fun in now."
And you only say that up until you're 30, or 40, or 50,
and then you realized
how much more you want to keep living life
and enjoying the different
stages of your life. (keyboard clacks)
- I am Sydney, I am 29 years old,
and I am making my neck long.
- What this thing does is not make your neck long.
It can make the appearance of your neck long
by pushing down the clavicles,
which are your collarbones here,
and literally changing the angle of your top ribs.
So it looks like your neck is longer
but it's actually not becoming longer.
- [Sydney] Because of the necklace,
I had to change everything in my life.
Even the way I eat.
I can feel my throat
pressing against the back of the necklace when I swallow.
- If you're limiting your range of motion,
you're actually creating restrictions
and blood flow weaknesses
in the stabilizing muscles of the neck.
And as a result, they're setting yourself up
for future tension headache, (text pops)
compression headaches, (text pops)
maybe even circulation problems,
depending on how tight the neck rings actually are.
- The idea of stopping has not crossed my mind
because it's been in my mind my whole life.
Look where she's at and look where I'm at.
I would love to get my neck as long as hers.
- Remember, the way that the ribs move,
follow a very specific pattern
to allow maximal expansion of your lungs.
And when you're limiting rib mobility,
and changing the rib mobility,
you're actually decreasing your ability
to take a full breath.
And as a result, starting to impact your
cardiopulmonary performance. (keyboard clacks)
- [Sydney] I don't feel very good
after removing the necklace.
Wow, it is really bruised.
It's a little upsetting to see the bruising.
(keyboard clacks) - When you have constant
pressure on your skin,
you could actually cause pressure necrosis.
This is basically what happens in a hospital
when someone stays for a long period of time
and is bed-bound, can't walk, can't rotate in the bed.
They could actually develop pressure ulcers.
They could get so deep to the point
where the skin gets broken down
all the way to the bone,
past even the the adipose or fat tissue.
(keyboard clacks) - This is my destiny
and this is what I've chosen for myself.
(texts thudding)
- People take risks all the time doing things
that they find valuable and pleasurable.
And if this culturally means something to her,
who are we to judge? (keyboard clacks)
- I'm Justin Jedlica, I'm 32 years old,
and I'm a living doll.
- A living doll?
Is that a profession?
Is that a hobby? (keyboard clacks)
- I've had 125 procedures.
- It's a lot of procedures (blower whirring)
- And I spent $158,000 to make me really resemble a doll.
- See, I wonder if at any point,
did his doctors have a discussion
as to why he wants this?
Is it healthy to keep going for surgical procedures?
Are there other options, like, getting in shape
where your muscles can look big
without having to get implants?
And I'm only saying that
because that's a healthier alternative, not necessarily
he has to do that. (keyboard clacks)
- I started having a couple other nose revisions.
Then I'll get a little fuzzy after a while,
but at the end, I've had five nose jobs now.
- Because I'm not a plastic surgeon,
I don't know what the qualifications are
of a person that should not get plastic surgery.
But I think if you're getting multiple facial revisions
and you're doing it to replicate an imaginary being,
I think that's worth an evaluation
with a mental health specialist,
at the very least. (logo whooshing)
Click here for a clip of my interview with Steve-O,
where he shares his biggest regret
and his most painful injury.
As always, stay happy and healthy.
(gentle upbeat music)