Woman addicted to eating 'salty' toenails explains how it started 26 years ago

A woman from West Virginia has opened up about why she became addicted to eating and chewing on toenails - and not just her own.

Since her episode of the TLC show My Strange Addiction aired in February, single mom Janet Agyemang has gone viral for her love for human nails.

In the now-famous clip, Janet can be seen lifting her sweaty feet up after a long hard gym session, and putting them straight into her mouth. She then bites off and chews her toenails, which she says taste 'salty'.

Janet ate around 60 toenails a week, and at the time of filming, it equated to consuming almost two pounds of toenails since her addiction to biting and consuming them began during childhood. However, it's not just her own, as Janet also consumes her children's nails.

As per Healthline, the uncontrollable urge to eat the nails is called Onychophagia. However, this can cause problems such as dental problems, fungal infections in the nail bed and illness, as bacteria is passed into the mouth, UCLA Health states.

Months after her bombshell episode aired, UNILAD caught up with Janet about her addiction.

Janet says that her addiction is ‘still the same’ as when the show aired. However, she’s cut back on eating her toenails, but is still addicted to her fingernails.

It’s not just her own nails, however, In the show, we saw Janet ask her friend for her nail clippings. The mother of two tells us how she still likes to snack on her daughters’ clippings whilst at work - which she puts in a special container.

“I’ll save her nails, and I’ll put it in the gum when I get to work to make me feel closer to her. And I’ll chew gum until I leave work,” Janet tells us, as she says leaving her children to go to work is ‘triggering’ for her.

During the interview, Janet opened up about the trauma she went through as a child, and why her ‘strange addiction’ started almost 26 years ago.

Janet grew up in Ghana with her grandparents, and one day, was put on a plane to the United States to meet her real parents.

“I was never told where I was going, I was just put on the airplane with a complete stranger and I was on my way to meet my real parents,” she recalled.

Without her grandparents on the flight, Janet started to become anxious - which is when she began chewing her nails, quickly realizing it was calming her nerves.

When she did get to meet her parents after years of only having brief phone conversations, Janet says her dad tried to make up for lost time, although her mom “treated her differently,” causing her nail addiction to continue. Her father later got deported, which ‘turned her world upside down’.

Dealing with so much at such a young age, Janet continued her coping mechanisms through adulthood - with the nail biting and eating still helping to calm her down to this day.

In the 26 years of her habit, Janet luckily hasn’t had any health problems, but says she wants to stop in fear of damaging her veneers.

“You’re so traumatized, you don’t think about what it can do to you,” Janet expresses.

“When we were doing the show, my oldest mentioned something about fungus. I never really thought about the impacts it could cause me."

Janet says other people have written to her with the same condition - and urges people feeling the same to find ‘another way to cope with their stressor’.