Many
of questions usually question truth when we think of psychics, not addiction// *Helen,
a French woman in her mid-40s, had been seeking advice from psychics off and on
for more than two decades, ever since she was a 19*year*old college kid// But
in the years following a divorce, her dependence on clairvoyants had grown to
the point where she couldn`t make even the most trivial decision like choosing a movie on her own// At one point, Helen was spending
up to eight hours and $200 a day on the phone or online with fortune tellers//
Her story appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Behavioral Addictions//
Related*This Man Thought His Family Was Replaced by Evil Clones The Patient*
Apart from depression following a couple of bad breakups, Helen has nothing
particularly unusual in her medical history// She has a good job that she
enjoys (she`s described in her case report only as a manager ), but despite
bringing in what should be a comfortable income, her increasingly frequent
consultations with psychics has driven her into debt// After some time, she
could no longer ignore her financial problems, and so she sought psychiatric
help//
The Problem* The first time
Helen saw a psychic, she was 19 and looking for advice about her college
education// She`s always struggled with decision-making frequently, a fear of
making the wrong choice has had a paralyzing effect, preventing her from
deciding anything at all// She continued to seek input from psychics off and
on, but by her mid-20s the casual habit started to become problematic, when her
insecurity in a romantic relationship pushed her into losing control of how often she sought help from the
clairvoyant// Marie Grall-Bronnec, an addiction specialist at Nantes University
Hospital in France and the lead author on the case study, writes that Helen was
hoping that the fortune tellers could answer her obsessive doubts: Does he
really love me? How long will our relationship last? and after their breakup*
Will he come back? Related:The Strange
Case of the Woman Haunted by Dragons By the time she married at 37, she`d
become increasingly dependent on psychics// Grall-Bronnec writes* She
repeatedly returned to fortune telling to reassure herself about the future of
her relationship, and increasingly so as it deteriorated// The breakup worsened
the disorder// Since her divorce, she consults fortune tellers – not always the
same person on the phone or online, in a
compulsive way, more and more often , for longer and longer
periods of time and spends each time more and more money up to 200 euros per session// As she is never satisfied with the fortune
tellers` predictions, she will consult again very soon after the latest call or
connection// Helen later said that during her reading, she`s convinced that
this person can truly see her future — and yet directly afterwards, she says
she knows she`s being irrational// Still, that doesn`t stop her from seeking
out yet another psychic//
The Diagnosis Helen sought out help of her own volition,
suggesting that she was unhappy with the hold her dependence on fortune telling
had over her life// The psychiatric team she met with had never seen a case
quite like hers, but after ruling out both obsessive compulsive disorder and
generalized anxiety disorder, they found that her actions matched the criteria
for behavioral addictions more commonly associated with things like alcohol or
gambling// Her time spent speaking with fortune tellers, for example, had
become the most important activity in
her life, and even when she wasn`t talking to a psychic, she was thinking about
it// Over the years, she`d made multiple attempts to curb or quit the habit
altogether, but she never succeeded// And like other forms of addiction, it was
as if she had built up a tolerance to having her fortune read, in that she
ended up needing more and more of it to feel satisfied//
