The TLC reality series “My Strange Addiction” has been going for shock and awe since it premiered in 2010.
The show originally ended in 2015, but it was resurrected this month. Season 7 premiered on Jan. 7 — and the show’s latest subject has fans freaking out.
In an Instagram trailer for the Wednesday, Jan. 21, episode, a woman named Cassy reveals her “vabbing” habit on a first date. Frustrated with her lack of romantic experience, Cassy has taken to applying her own vaginal fluids like perfume, hoping that her “pheromones” will attract a mate.
“This is definitely the most unusual date I’ve been on in recent memory,” Cassy’s date told cameras after learning her secret.
Fans took to the comment section to express their shock.
“TLC yall need to be arrested, now what time does the full episode air?” one person quipped.
“Someone call the police,” another wrote.
“I just gagged on my lunch at my work desk. Thanks!” a third viewer chimed in.
Long before introducing viewers to Cassy, “My Strange Addiction” featured a woman who compulsively ate her late husband’s ashes, a man who was in a “serious relationship” with his car, and a woman who was addicted to sniffing gasoline. With such extreme story lines, many fans of the show have questioned whether it’s fake.
An alum named Lauren, whose hobby of dressing like anthropomorphic animals and attending furry conventions was covered during season 1, claimed that a lot of her “My Strange Addiction” episode was “scripted” during a Reddit AMA.
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“At no point did I ever do anything I would normally do. Everything was either scripted, guided, or I was plopped into a situation that I did not want to be in,” Lauren wrote.
“They approached me with the intention of this being a show about ‘Odd and unique hobbies,’ which pulled me in. Otherwise, I never would have gone onto a show called ‘My Strange Addiction’ and put either myself or furries in a horrible light,” she continued. “They absolutely had me act differently, and often fed me lines.”
Another “My Strange Addiction” alum named Carrie claimed that she participated “in shots that were not honest” in a 2019 YouTube video. A season 3 episode focused on Carrie drinking her own urine as an alternative cancer treatment.
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“The show made it look like I drink my pee all day long in everything I do, which makes sense with the theme of ‘My Strange Addiction,’” Carrie said in the video, as she read aloud from a letter she penned to one of the show’s producers. “[Another producer] explained it to me at the time that viewers needed more than what we could come up with if we limited my story to the reality. … The twisting of reality that was done to make the show interesting was not in line with my values then or today. If I knew what was going to be done to the footage I gave, I would not have agreed to do it. The show made it look like my daughters didn’t believe in me or urine therapy. This was a blatant misuse of the truth.”
Carrie and Lauren’s stories suggest that at least some episodes of “My Strange Addiction” are stretching the truth. Guess you can’t believe everything you see on TV.
NJ.com has reached out to TLC for comment.
“My Strange Addiction” airs on TLC on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. Episodes are available to stream on HBO Max the day after they air.
