Why Is This Florida Woman Addicted to Eating....Sofas?

"In the last year I’ve eaten seven sofas," says Adele Edwards, who hails from Bradenton, Florida.

So what's the deal with her sofa-eating addiction, which has plagued her for 21 years? She suffers from a rare disease known as "pica." And if she keeps eating sofas, doctors say that she will die.

'I unzip the cushions and snack on the foam inside. And once I start I just can’t stop.

'But now doctors have told me that if I carry on, my addiction will kill me.'

Pica is a disorder found most commonly in toddlers and pregnant women who lack certain nutrients, causing them to crave non-nutritive substances like chalk, coins, batteries and even dirt.

Sometimes it’s caused by stress, and Adele admits her first time happened during a very emotional period in her life, when her parents were on the brink of divorce.

She tells her story here: