Woman Addicted To Eating Her Dead Husband's Ashes

Last night’s season finale of My Strange Addiction featured Casie, a 26-year-old widow who’s admittedly having a tough time coping with the loss of her husband after he died suddenly from a severe asthma attack. Casie had an immediate—and unhealthy—attachment to her husband’s ashes, carrying them around with her everywhere she went, including to the movies and shopping and even making meals for the ashes. But after she accidentally got some ashes on her fingers one day—and feeling bad about just wiping them off—she decided to lick them off. Since then, she’s been unable to stop eating her husband’s ashes.

Casie says the ashes taste like “rotten eggs, sand, and sandpaper,” a combination she’s “grown to love.” In two months, Casie has eaten about one pound of the ashes. There are only about five pounds left. Despite the fact that the ashes contain a combination of chemicals from the embalming fluid which actually cause psychosis when ingested, Casie’s biggest concern is that she will eat the ashes until they are all gone and then she won’t have any ashes to hang out with. While her mother knows about her addiction, no mention was made of whether or not Casie’s late husband’s family knows about what she’s been doing and how they might feel about it.

During the episode, Casie went to see a therapist, where she didn’t seem to make much progress and repeatedly threatened to commit suicide should she actually eat all the ashes. In the end, she checked herself into an inpatient care facility (perhaps a first for this show), was not allowed to bring ashes, and is under 24-hour surveillance.