Not typically. Occasionally, I will use it to subsist if I’ve lost a meal somewhere along the line, but that’s usually a sign of a completely different problem I have (which is a different thread, that I probably won’t make). But the paper is not hunger filling in and of itself. Which is good, because it’s a sign that I probably won’t end up inadvertently anorexic (something that can happen to people with untreated Pica).
Have you always craved paper, or have there been other things that you’ve tried before finding that you liked paper the best? Do you eat any other non-food items?
I ate (my own) mucus for a few years. I did a lot of behavioral training going on for that one, and I finally kicked that habit a while ago, because obviously that is a lot more hindering socially (i.e. really freaking gross) than eating paper. I tried eating fabric once or twice, but I never enjoyed the taste. I have no problem eating my own blood when I get a bloody nose, but don’t otherwise seek out blood, and that one never reaches beyond the mouth being a handy containment area while I find tissues. I used to chew on plastic and wood, but never actually ate any of that.
And before anyone asks, no, I do not find and never have found anything at all appealing about either urine or feces.
How do you feel about the socially acceptable forms of eating paper (edible paper) or wood (liquorice root)? l Loved edible paper as a kid, the stuff hosts are made from, and the stamps on the side of bread, and the papery stuff underneath a maroon or cupcake.
You mean coughing it up and then eating it? Or eating what you pick from yournose? [innocently]doens’t everybody do that in private? [/innocently]
Hm, could there be some synesthesia going on? I have made spit balls out of a number of different papers fairly recently [spitball fight with my goddaughters] and I didn’t notice the different colors of paper tasting different from each other, though types tended to taste different [different chemical processing maybe?]
I suppose I could try to get them together and have another spitball fight, just for experimental purposes 
I’ve had some of that, and it just tastes like thin frosting. A completely different taste and texture.
The latter. And if I had done it in private it mayn’t have been an issue. But I didn’t, so I trained, and then I started eating paper.
I dunno. It would certainly be interesting to do a blind taste test. But for that, I’d have to find an administer.
Dyes do often have different source materials that they are made from. The red dye Carmine is made in part from carminic acid, which is harvested from the Cochineal bug that produces it. By “harvested” I mean “made from their ground-up bodies and eggs.”; Annatto (a reddish-orange colour) is made from the seeds of the Achiote plant; there are also other natural dyes made from turmeric, saffron, paprika, beets, and other natural items. On the other hand there are synthetic dyes (all those FD&C listings on ingredients) made from things like coal tar, calcium and potassium salts, triphenyl methane, and other such things, so I imagine that to those sensitive to them, there could very well be different tastes among coloured papers – and I’ve no doubt some of them probably taste awful.
When I was a wee tot in early grade school I remember putting crepe paper in my mouth (this was in the 70s, yet even so I don’t know what possessed me) and recall it had this kind of intense chemical flavour to it with a distinctly sour note, no doubt from the dye used, but I remember thinking it was quite odd that paper should have such a strong flavour. I don’t know if it’s the same way with crepe paper nowadays, though.
I have a question: Do you get tempted when you see a new or different sort of paper you’ve never tried before? Like, if you hadn’t tried it already and upon reading my description of crepe paper above, do you get the urge to try it out?
Also, have you tried edible woody materials like sugar cane or cinnamon sticks?
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Yeah, definitely. I don’t usually try different dyes, since there are so many horrid ones, but new textures or types I’ll go for when I find them.
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And I’ve tried them. But they don’t taste the same, or even similar, to paper. Paper–all paper has a taste all its own, apart from any other foodstuff I’ve ever found. It’s really hard to describe. It’s like…a cross between licking a Popsicle stick, eating celery…but there’s this sort of warm taste there too, along with a hint of sweetness.
I had pica when I was pregnant (with both pregnancies) because I was anemic. When I got that straightened out (with prescription iron supplements), it went away. I never actually ate anything I shouldn’t have, but my cravings were for powdered laundry detergent, especially Napisan, and a eucalyptus wool wash I had. I also craved the smell of cigarette smoke, musty places (I’d go stand in my friends garage and breathe the smell in) and ice. I ate a TON of ice.
Do you have a particular type of paper you would be more likely to go out of your way for? For example, do you prefer linen over plain bond, or perhaps have a particular affinity for coated stock?
So is it the flavour and texture component that is more compelling than simply the need to keep your mouth busy?
So that was you on Jeopardy! this week who said the main ingredient of a Tootsie Roll was paper? 
I’ve always eaten paper - not compulsively, but I just, on occasion, like a little paper. I sometimes tore the edges off pages in a book and ate them when I was about 8 or 9. My sister took well-known Englishman in New York Quentin Crisp out to dinner once and told him (as explanation why she’d never lend his book to me) they’d found pages 26 and 27 of Little Women in my appendix. In fact, I did eat a good part of that book!
I am now 46 years old and I still eat the occasional straw wrapper. It’s delicious. One of my work-study students confirms that she enjoys it as well.
A napkin soaked in melted chocolate soft serve is not bad either for obvious reasons - it tastes like chocolate!
Not really, no. While there are differences, most of them are not significantly different.
I have no idea.
Hah!
Cool! That reminds me of the time I was studying for the SAT. I went a little overboard on SAT books, which I had no respect for due to…well, duh. And they have cruddy paper, which does not last. So I would study a page, rip it out, and eat it. Study a page, rip it out and eat it. Then i burned what was left. I hated that book.
Have you ever tried beeswax?
I used to eat paper (little bits at a time) and erasers as a kid. Don’t know if that qualifies as pica. I’d be hard pressed to answer a lot of the questions here. I think it was mainly an oral fixation. I don’t do it now, but I’m not repulsed by the idea either.
Also, eating boogers and snot is freaking gross, whether alone or in public.
I had pica when I was a kid, living in Indonesia. I was really, really skinny (I graduated from high school at 6 feet, 1 inches and weighed 120 pounds).
I ate paper, the wood from pencils, and erasers. I mostly ate the corners of pages from old books. I believe these pages had a high fiber content. However, I would resort to notebook paper if I needed to.
I would chew the pencils until I got to the graphite. I know I preferred American pencils (Dixon Ticonderogas) as opposed to the cheaper, round pencils available in Asia. I also loved the erasers.
All of this behavior stopped when I got to college in San Diego and started putting on weight.
Nowadays, the only paper I eat are the sticks from lollipops.
I am fairly certain I was driven by some sort of nutritional deficiency.
Anecdote not related to thread, not worthy of it’s own thread: In first grade, I went to school and the teacher asked me where my math homework was. I said “The dog ate it last night.” She went off on me, asking how I could say that, and didn’t I know that God doesn’t like liars, and if I thought she was stupid, yadda yadda. I, this dejected, pathetic looking, 7-yr old, started crying and said (truthfully), “No, I mean she died.” I think I made the teacher cry.
Is your weight in the normal range?