I accidentally gave myself iron-deficiency anemia at 16 years old.
Iron-deficiency anemia is when you don’t have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to your body’s tissues, which causes tiredness, weakness, and shortness of breath.
I did not realize I had given myself this ailment until my mom took me to the doctor because she was flummoxed by the amount of time I spent sleeping.
The doctor took some tests and asked me a few questions about my diet.
“What do you eat for breakfast?” she asked.
“Oatmeal,” I said.
“Every morning?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“OK, what do you have for lunch?”
“Air-popped popcorn.”
“OK, and what else?”
“Well, oatmeal if I’m really hungry.”
This type of questioning continued until we came to the conclusion that I had been eating strictly oatmeal and popcorn every day for three months and was, therefore, anemic. Turns out you can survive, but not thrive, on those delicious seeds of the Earth.
The doctor told me to start taking iron pills and monitor my protein intake, as zero grams a day was less than sufficient.
I wasn’t purposely eating popcorn and oatmeal for any reason other than I was obsessed with them. I was hyperfixated.
Hyperfixation is when you focus on a person, activity, object, etc. so much that you exclude or ignore everything else.
Popcorn and oatmeal were all I cared about. And unfortunately, that hyperfixation had consequences.
I’ve had many hyperfixations throughout my life that were not as detrimental to my health.
When I was 8, I was obsessed with frogs. My mom, being the queen she is, let me paint each wall of my room a different color of green, and adorn floating shelves with the frogs that most people put in their yards. I probably had around 30 porcelain frogs covering my walls.
What was on my dresser, you ask? A small tank with two live floating frogs that demanded fresh crickets every day.
One frog ate too many crickets and died, while the other suffered from malnourishment due to the other’s obesity and also died an unfortunate death.
I got an albino floating frog, Bob, shortly after. He lived quite a long time, as he was fed goldfish flakes.
In the early years of high school, I became entranced with classic rock. Spending most of my free time researching the “27 Club,” the “Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus,” and chaotic love triangles. I had black and white posters of rock bands littering my walls.
Due to this hyperfixation, I named one of my family cats Keith Richards.
I discovered Pearl Jam’s 1992 performance on “MTV Unplugged” as a freshman in college. I didn’t sleep and watched it seven times that first night. In the morning, I ran out into the living room and made my roommates cancel whatever they had planned to witness the magic I just saw.
For the rest of our college careers, if my roommates and I had any type of inconvenience in our day, we’d watch Pearl Jam’s “MTV Unplugged.”
Fast forward to now. I cannot stop watching the sixth season of “Love Island USA.” I’m obsessed.
I haven’t been this fascinated by a show since I watched all eight seasons of “Game of Thrones” in a week. Yes, that’s actually possible.
“Love Island” is possibly one of the worst shows ever created, yet I refuse to miss an episode. I’ve curated my social-media feeds to where I’m only shown “Love Island” content. I even vote for my favorite couple on the app.
Having hyperfixations is not exactly beneficial, but they’re not the end of the world.
Yes, I gave myself a slight health problem, was (still am) a weird frog girl, and have an undying obsession with Keith Richards and Pearl Jam.
Yes, I can only talk about “Love Island,” which is not useful or intellectually sound in today’s climate.
But, I’m not a bad trivia partner to have around, due to the rabbit holes I’ve gone down.
I always say, it’s better to know a little bit about everything than to know everything about one thing.
