Re-pen-tant Employee Freed From Penned-Up Feelings
A Brighton, England, man addicted to munching his way through 50 ballpoint pens
a week has been cured by hypnotherapy.
John Carey, 34, began spending £50 ($110 Cdn) a month on his habit after he was
banned from using pens at work because none of his colleagues could find
anything to write with.
“‘My manager took me to one side and said it wasn’t just the money I was costing
them but the fact that nobody else could ever find a pen to use," he told a
British newspaper.
“‘I’ve been chewing them for about five years but it started getting worse,
especially when I was stressed,’ said Carey.
“‘Where other people would say, ‘I’m dying for a cigarette,’ I’d say, ‘I’m dying
for a pen.’ A lot of the time I didn’t realize I was doing it.”
While sitting at his computer terminal, Mr. Carey would nibble on the shaft of a
pen until it splintered, eat the top, chew the ink cartridge and then throw what
remained in the garbage.
It took only one session of hypnotherapy at a local clinic to cure him.
“Basically, we jumbled up the sequence of his habit in his head to break the
cycle,” said Andy Cripps, the hypnotherapist.
To stop thinking about his addiction, Carey has taken on a new hobby – a Pen
Pal…