I know what you’re thinking, we’re all pretty much addicted to water, but we don’t feel like drinking it every moment of every day, and we certainly don’t consume over six gallons of it, daily. But Sasha Kennedy does, and that definitely makes her a water addict.
Drinking plenty of water is generally regarded as healthy advice, but they say too much of a good think can sometimes be bad for you, and 26-year-old Sasha Kennedy, from Essex, England, is certainly overdoing it. The young mother of two says she drinks about 25 liters of water a day, and can hardly go one hour without water, even at night. Because of her strange addiction, Sasha is forced to carry bottles of water with her, everywhere she goes, and has to use the bathroom up to 40 times a day.
Kennedy’s unquenchable thirst began when she was around two years old. She kept asking her parents for more water, which made them take her to a doctor. After examining her, physicians determined there was nothing wrong, but by age six, her mother had to leave a pint of water by Sasha’s bedside, during the night. She began taking bottles of water with her at school, and while all the other kids were playing during breaks, she would spend most of her time close to the water fountain. By the time she turned 13, she was already drinking around 15 liters of water per day, and the nighttime jug was replaced with a 5-liter plastic container.
At 16, Sasha left school and started working in a shoe stop stockroom, where her colleagues decided to move the water cooler next to her desk, after noticing how much water she drank. In her early 20s she reached 20 liters of water a day, but her addiction peaked when she started working from home, for a telecoms company, in 2007. She now consumes between 18 and 25 liters of water every day, which probably makes her the most hydrated person on the planet.
“If I feel my mouth start to get dry I have to get my next fix of water – it’s all I can focus on. People never really think anyone can drink that much until they get to know me – then they just cannot believe their eyes,” Sasha told the Daily Mail. “I feel thirsty pretty much all the time and always have to be sipping water – it’s an addictive habit.” The water addict says the most sleep she has ever had was about an hour and 15 minutes, before getting up to either have a drink or go to the bathroom.
With the average adult drinking around 200ml of water a day, you can say Sasha Kennedy’s case is pretty rare. Although she feels ok physically, experts say this overhydration can lead to all kinds of problems, and can even be fatal, in rare cases. Our body’s cells start swelling up with the excess water, and while most of them can cope with the swelling, those in the brain get pushed against the skull.