Kevin, a 27-year-old man from Chicago, has a very strange hobby – he wears body casts, even though he has no injuries! Kevin has been addicted to plaster casts for the past 21 years, and he has spent over $50,000 on his bizarre fixation. Although he realizes it’s ridiculous, he has no idea how to stop.
On an episode of TLC’s popular My Strange Addiction show, Kevin explained that wearing the casts makes him feel snug and comfortable, and that the very act of putting one on gives him a rush. “It really gives me this high that I just can’t really get any other way. My blood starts pumping and I get really nervous. It’s just a rush.”
“I don’t have any broken bones, but I’m addicted to putting orthopedic casts on my body,” he said. “I’m perfectly fine, perfectly healthy. I like the feeling of the cast around me. I’ve done two full arm casts, two full leg casts. I’ve done two full leg casts and an arm cast. I’ve put on so many casts, it’s ridiculous.”
Kevin claims that his obsession began when he was in grade school, even before he had the chance to try on a real cast. “At about six or seven years old, I used to steal all my parents’ toilet paper and wrap my legs in toilet paper to mimic a cast,” he said. He finally wore his first real cast at age 12 when he broke his arm in a rollerblading accident, and loved all the attention it got him.
Even today, Kevin continues to enjoy the attention being in a cast brings him. Sometimes, he even throws in crutches, a scooter, or a wheelchair to enhance the amount of sympathy he receives. In fact, he enjoys being started at in public, so he brings a cast with him wherever he goes. “You never know when there’s going to be a need to put on a cast,” he explained.
Wearing a cast is a particularly easy way to meet and impress women in bars, Kevin revealed. “Girls are constantly coming up to me, like, ‘Oh what did you do, you poor thing,’” he said. He even pretends to be really injured and makes up a cool story about how it happened. “I love the attention I get. I love going out in public and seeing everybody – that gawk look is just amazing,” he said.
via New York Post
