My strange addiction

Isn't there a tv show called "My Strange Addiction"?  Well, to be fair I don't know if you would call what I have an addiction or a symptom.  Probably a symptom, because when I get my condition under control it goes away.

Do you remember that chapter on eating disorders you read were supposed to read in the 9th grade?  It probably covered three different disorders: pica, bulimia and anorexia.  Pica got like one small paragraph and the other two pretty much took like 20 pages each.  Well I have pica (*not formally diagnosed).  I don't even know why it's in that chapter, it's really totally different.  For me, it's caused my a lack of iron and pregnancy.  Actually, I don't know if I have it really, because I don't actually eat the non-nutritive substances (like chalk and dirt).  I want to but I smell them instead.  (okay confession, I always want to eat chalk so the other day I just put a little chalk dust on my tongue.  GROSS!)

Some things that I like to smell:
-laundry soap
-dryer sheets (sometimes I carry them around with me in my pocket)
-my Caress body wash
-generic hand sanitizer, after the alcohol has evaporated
-new power puffs
-my face wash
-dish soap
-the chemical smell when you iron new fabrics

So its pretty much all in the same "soap" category.  There are a few things I the feel of, that I might think about eating but of course I never would, like chalk and foam. 

When ever I would tell my students about this they all thought I was seriously weird.  I probably am.