A 30-year-old woman has revealed she is trolled for still sucking her thumb – but she refuses to stop.
Mica Moore, a British Olympian bobsledder, from Cardiff, Wales, made headlines last year after revealing her bad habit, which she has been doing since childhood.
But despite facing criticism from her hundreds of thousands of followers online, Mica insists she will never stop – and even insists boyfriends find it “cute”.
“Honestly, the reason I haven’t given up is because I truly feel like sucking my thumb is part of me at this point being 30 years old,” Mica told http://NeedToKnow.co.uk .
“I’ve done it for the majority of my life and it is such a hard habit to quit.
“I always explain it to people like imagine being a smoker and your cigarette is attached to your hand you can’t get away from it so it’s just so difficult to stop.
“I’ve tried everything when I was a lot younger my mum put hot sauce on my thumb. She put the nail-biting nail varnish.
“I put socks on my hands at night but none of it worked and I always went back to sucking my thumb.”
Mica has faced heavy criticism online after sharing videos with her 470,000 followers on TikTok about her habit – and the health issues it has caused.
In one clip, Mica struggles to bite a sandwich as she says: “Realising that my orthodontist wasn’t lying when he said if I didn’t stop sucking my thumb I wouldn’t be able to bite anything.”
The clip went viral, attracting 8.9 million views and 723,000 likes.
User Caitlin said: “I would hold a massive grudge against my parents for not forcibly stopping this as a child.”
“Nooo the way your teeth slide off the sandwich,” Sacha commented.
Someone else added: “No way people still do this.”
“Thank god I stopped my toddler omg,” said Arianna.
“This is scary,” another person commented.
Jessie said: “Not y’all trying to normalize thumb sucking as an adult what.”
“I don’t get how y’all still suck ur thumb as a grown ass adult,” another person added. [sic]
But Mica is determined not to let the hate get to her.
She said: “I actually find it bizarre that I have trolls who say mean things about my teeth because it’s something that doesn’t affect anyone else.
“It’s a matter that is completely my problem that I deal with, but most the time they say things like ‘Oh my god I can’t believe you still suck your thumb at your age!’ or they try to blame my parents.
“But to be honest, I’ve got a very fun personality and I can take a good joke and make light of a situation so I never take any of their comments to heart!”
Mica also says it has never been an issue in her romantic life.
She added: “I don’t know whether I’ve been lucky, or I’ve just chosen the right man, but no one is ever had a problem with me sucking my thumb.
“I think if anything any of the boyfriends I’ve had have thought that it’s kind of cute.
“None of them have ever tried to stop me or been embarrassed of me doing it so I guess that’s made me not want to quit either!”
Given that at least 3-7% of U.S. and British adults still suck their thumbs, a big so what is in order. The fact is that thumb sucking should, by now that it’s much more known and seen, be totally socially accepted for adults. It’s free, legal, quiet, non-intrusive, convenient, instantly calming, aids sleep and concentration, calorie free and more it’s a wonder why more people don’t partake, especially when most of the more “adult” choices are so harmful.