I Have a Confession

You know those white tags on the back cover of library books? Those white paper things? There's a little 1mm by 1mm chip in there. I have had an addiction for the past four years eating them. I've eaten close to two hundred of them so far. Recently, they saw that I was ripping off the tags, but didn't directly link it to me. Because the tags were missing after I checked the books out, they linked it to me. They are three dollars each, apparently. That's an unfair way to make money, saying that they should only cost a penny or two to manufacture. Or even less, actually. Anyways, I had to pay 15 dollars for the books that they linked to me. Two years ago was the first time they found out about it. It took them two years to find out someone was ripping the tags off their books. I can't believe it took them that long. They threatened to charge the next time they saw that the tags were ripped. I stopped going to the library in entirety for one and half years after that. I badly craved the tags, but I didn't go to the library. Then six months ago, my addiction got the better of me. I went to the library, got 5 books, and ripped the tags off of them. That's what I paid the 15 dollars for. I went and got 10 more books. So far, I didn't rip the tags off of these, but when I was in the library, I ripped tags off of four books. I feel bad for doing it, but I can't help it. My addiction is too strong. I see this happening sometime in the future:

*librarian* We know it's you. We've linked the tag disappearances to your account. Can you explain this? Why do you do it? What do you do with the tags?
*me* Well I... eat them!
*librarian* silence WTF???
me I'm not joking!
librarian You.... eat the tags. You freaking eat the tags.
me Yep
librarian Just a sec I need to get the manager
me Yay I get to creep out one more person!
manager You eat the tags?
me Yep
manager Seems like you've ripped close to two hundred tags off of books
me Yep
manager That's six hundred dollars you owe us
me Uh.... well... I didn't know that they were that expensive when I first started doing it. Also why should it be expensive? They should be more like a tenth of a cent each, ba<x>sed on manufacturing that kind of thing
manager You still have to pay for them.
me Ok, but I still have the tag-eating addiction.
manager Are you sure that won't have adverse health effects?
me It doesn’t do anything to you.
manager STOP DOING IT ANYWAYS AND FIND ANOTHER LIBRARY TO RIP TAGS OFF OF!
me NO!
manager (frustrated) Ugh... here's some unused tags. Eat these instead.
me That's illegal. You’re allowing me to do a potentially dangerous act.
manager What can I do about your dumb addiction? Oh. I know. bans from all Orange County district libraries
me Hehehehhe trollface goes to Seminole county libraries

I don't see myself stopping this addiction any time soon though. IDK why I eat the tags. Pica is pica, I guess.

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StarlitSky

Well I wish you luck! You got me kind of curious but I dont think i would ever want to eat that stuff... But be careful with the copper wire and shocking. I mean, can you substitute it for anything? Like, instead of eating copper wire and those tags, could you eat food or something instead?

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

... -_- it's not that simple. I do eat actual food. It's like how people smoke cigarrettes. That's not all they do. They do other things too. They know what they do is bad for them, but it's hard to stop. The tags are harmless to my health. It's harmful to my wallet, though :P the wire thing, I know that it's a problem, and I'm really trying to stop that.

StarlitSky

True, cant you go to some other library and eat those tags and not check the books out or anything?

amazingpants

Are you talking about these things?
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ljx140602webenisPW3m.jpg
I would always peel those off (Only if I owned the book) and stick it on my face, because it looks cool.

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

They're similar to that, but they have a small microchip.

StarlitSky

Wow man, that was an entertaining read. Good luck with that addiction, I have to say, Its better than doing meth. Whats so addicting about eating the tags though?

TetrisGuy · 26-30, M

Yeah, I'd never do drugs. And why is it so addicting? I'm not sure why, but I think it gives me a similar effect as drugs would do, except without the chemicals. Drugs basically work by stimulating large amounts of the hormones dopamine, serotonin, and sometimes oxycontin, which your brain processes as pleasure hormones. This can be released in small amounts, as well, from running (as well as endocannabinoids, relating to the "runner's high"), and from activities that give you pleasure. When I eat the tags, they make me feel warm and fuzzy. I feel happy, and I crave more. I also eat copper wire, and that, I have profuse amounts of, so my addiction is worse there. I've once or twice eaten 10g of it in one day. One of the times, I started mildly convulsing and felt awful, too. The other time, I was more on the lines of meh.

One that makes more sense is that I like shocking myself. Started somewhere at the start of 6th grade, and I'm now in 10th, IDK, it pleasures me, and there's a fair number of people too that think the same. I wonder if there's an EP group about it. It releases more of the hormones, but is way more dangerous.

And yeah, thanks, I'm trying to control all of them. It's getting really hard to though, but I'll try to at least limit it.

:D

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