Around 2012, a 32-year-old man presented to medical professionals with an unusual habit: he had taken to eating glass. This may sound like something a stage magician would do to shock their audience, but there was no performance here. For the previous 10 years, the man, who had no prior history of psychiatric conditions, increasingly found himself craving glass. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

He told psychiatrists that he would constantly keep pieces of the substance in his mouth during the day and eventually chew and swallow them. Once this was done, he would become restless and irritable until he could put another piece in his mouth again, forcing him to consistently seek out new sources to satisfy his cravings.

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