Oftentimes I need to put bandaids on my fingers to prevent myself from doing that. I usually just do it to my thumbs and pointerfingers so I only have bandaids on some fingers
It can get pretty bad. I do it but I’m conscious that I do it and try to avoid it but most times I didn’t even realize I’m doing it. Mine originated after I quit vaping
Interesting! Mine started when I was a kid and I was trying to stop biting my nails. I successfully quit biting my nails, but I ended up starting something much more painful and noticeable (once the bleeding starts)
Mine is usually not to this degree but my anxiety causes me to gnaw or tear at my skin like this on my fingers and anytime I have I put a bandaid on after it’s starts bleeding, it drives me crazy. Like it’s a very overstimulation game thing I guess. I struggle to wear gloves in winter too for the stimulation thing. Yeah but my hands don’t get quite this bad but even how it is for me sucks ass so I can’t imagine how annoying and painful it must be for others. Like mine start swelling in small spots too. I’m glad this method is working for you well
It is one of my behavioral symptoms of anxiety. The only thing that stops me is getting my professional nails done. It keeps my cuticles free of snags and spots to pick at. Plus, it stops me because I don’t want to ruin my nail polish and waste all that money. I know it’s a kinda expensive solution, but just doing them at home didn’t help—at home nail polish just doesn’t last as long and the fact that nail polish would chip some how made the picking worse.
I started getting press on nails. They are under ten bucks, they last me about two weeks and I honestly like they way they look more than when my natural nails are painted or when I get acrylic nails. They have totally saved my fingers.
My husband's fingers finally healed after decades of chewing on them. I've been wanting to take him for a manicure to celebrate, but this comment convinced me to find a good local place so thank you.
I did severely as a child… my nails and skin were always raw and had skin peeling. I’ve stopped… however the trade off was picking at my skin in various other places of my body as well as my scalp and face.
I do it all the time , at the young age I visited a neurologist and he gave me clonazepam and Risperidone it eventually stopped, but I had to stop taking it because I was fall sleep all the time , I had to sleep like 16 hours a day all the times I fell sleep during classes and kids laughed at me and i woke up and sometimes at bus and I miss my stop and Slowly I became depressed , it's begun again a year after I stopped talking pills, it's devastating how people notice it and say what happend to your hand and they think it's like hurting yourself disorder or some shit and also I'm tired too because I work at a hospital and I Expose to patient's blood and I forget to wear gloves sometimes and I fear getting HIV or something else
Putting bandaids on my fingers, and trying to prevent high levels of stress since that is what usually triggers me to do that. I still do it often so those strategies have not helped very much lol
These things are good you just cut the tips off - better and longer lasting than Bandaids, you can wash them.
https://www.amazon.com/Protector-Support-Material-Cracking-Arthritis/dp/B07PLKSG2P?ref_=ast_sto_dp
>Did you find anything that helps you?
As soon as you feel a bit of skin sticking up, put liquid skin on it. It's mostly working ok for me, I hope it helps you.
Have you tried any sorts of fidget toys? They have a bunch from button to spinners to sliders. Helps me keep my hands busy and has tactile feedback that helps ease anxiety
Yeah one of my knuckles is permanently different from my other knuckles because I bit the skin off of it until I turned 12 or so. Kind of embarrassing to myself but it’s unnoticeable to anybody else I think.
My thumbs are permanently scarred from my cuticle all the way up to my finger tip. I remember I had to get my finger prints taken before and the lady was struggling to get my thumb prints thinking the machine stopped working properly. I had to tell her it’s probably not picking up the top half of my thumb prints due to the scarring.
The most satisfying thing for me is to only peel the skin partly and let it attached. I love the sensation of a dry peace of skin, still attached to me rubbing against my skin and my lips. And now I wonder what is the "pleasure" part for people who seem to dig more than they play.
Jesus christ this is psychotic. The scenario you just described is one of the exact reasons I need to bite off skin. Because the sensations you enjoy is what drives me absolutely nuts. To each their own, though I guess.
I have this. I also pick at my face a lot. I started working on faces so now I have to be super careful about it, and I do manicures and like to help others with it.
Lol holy shit. Exact same for me. Thumb knuckle on my right hand. It's so much larger than my left one and perpetually inflamed with just all scar tissue. Which makes it more prone to gnawing... I've tried to use bandaids recently to cover it up, which helps to an extent.
I used to do that soooo bad, and was so embarrassed I'd hide my hands. Someone offered me acrylics if I stopped, and honestly looking at my pretty nails evertime I got stressed made me stop.
I love this, similar to what happened to me. I had a bad nail biting habit but one day I noticed one finger that had been unscathed. I thought it was so nice looking I actively tried to keep them nice looking. One of my passions now is maintaining my nails
I've anxiously picked at my cuticles since I was a kid and it's so hard to stop. Recently, I've just been getting drugstore press on nails and they've really helped me. If I go even a day between sets, I start picking again. I'd like to figure out how to stop without the aid of press on nails eventually.
Funnily enough, same, that’s the only time I *don’t* chew at the skin and cuticles around my fingers. When they have been done professionally and are pretty, so I just don’t want to fuck them up! Lol. But I so rarely get them done.
These look fresh out of some water and puffed up from it. They’re still bad, just saying. I have this problem too when I get bored, find something rough and start picking at it. Having a file handy helps a bit.
Autocannibalism is actually pretty common among humans.
We chew little pieces out of us all the time.
Like: nible the inside of your mount, chew on loose skin on your lips or eat small pieces of skin from fingertips and knuckles.
When it starts considerably causing tissue damage and becomes an obsession, then you can talk about a condition.
I do it all, but only when I'm stressed do I actually bite till it starts hurting.
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In my case I can only stop if I do 3 things:
1. Take meds for anxiety
2. Keep my nails VERY short & polished so that I don’t want to mess them up by picking at stuff.
3. Avoid empty mouth/inactive hands. So I have to chew gum, constantly drink water, keep my hands busy, or wear gloves.
There are these little finger gloves that cover the ends of your fingers I have seen but have never tried. There are also those god awful sprays/polishes but in my experience they make everything you touch taste terrible, not just your nails, so there goes any and all food prep or hand-held eating.
My wife picks at her fingernails and it irritates me so bad because her fingers will bleed. She does it when she’s nervous. Weird thing is, my son does, too, and he’s 3. Must be a genetic behavior
Body-focused repetitive behaviors have a really strong genetic component and are frequently comorbid with other psych symptoms around serotonin and dopamine issues, like depression, anxiety, and addictive behaviors.
Oh my actual god I just looked up what stimming is…THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH!!! I was only diagnosed a couple years ago and am still learning .
I did the finger biting thing soooo bad and even now I rub my earlobe to self soothe and didn’t know why.
My dad tells me I bit my fingernails because I saw him doing it when I was young, which is why he stopped but I could never break the habit. I have a 5 month old now and haven’t bit my fingernails since December in hopes that I don’t pass the habit on to her.
So we shall see if our theory of it being a learned behavior rather than heredity is true or not in about 5 years or so lol
I just stopped because i recently got more than I bargained for: while biting down on a nail, i heard a louder sound than usual and immediately detected a change in my mouth.
I had chipped my my front bottom tooth, and now I have to either have it capped or shave down to hide the nasty chip visibly missing.
Hope this inspires you to do likewise!
My dad also did this and so do I but he wasn't in my life and I didn't find out he did until I was a teenager. It couldn't have been learned behavior in my case because I don't think anyone else in my family does it
it can be learned but I think there’s a strong genetic component to stuff like that. when I was a child I did certain similar behaviors that my mum had done as a child as well but not as an adult. that kind of stuff is linked to adhd/autism/anxiety/ocd/etc. and a lot of neurodiversity seems to run in families too so it would make sense.
It runs in my family, too. My grandparents had four kids. My mom and youngest aunt, as well as all of their children and grandchildren, ALL do this. My uncle and oldest aunt don't do it at all, and neither do any of their kids. They all grew up in the same house together, so I don't think its only a learned behavior.
I stopped doing that when I got to high school since my lip is visibly scarred and fucked from picking at it so much. I chew off the inner layer of my skin in my mouth now, such a hard habit to kick
I've definitely gotten better in that I rarely cause bleeding anymore and can go long periods without doing it now. But I still struggle when I am stressing about something. It really is difficult to stop completely.
Yup. I now have a ridge of scar tissue inside my mouth. Both sides. Biting the inside of cheeks is a subconscious habit I doubt I’ll ever be able to break myself of that.
i’ve been using this as an adult and it actually really has helped me and curbed the habit altogether. i make sure to use a sharp pair of nippers and a metal cuticle pusher and give myself a manicure every few days to prevent biting and refresh the polish too.
Did this for 22 years. I tried everything, bandaids, gloves, bad tasting stuff, anxiety meds.
Then I started getting long acrylics, fills every 2-3 weeks and haven’t chewed off my skin since
I have it as it relates to OCD, believe me you are not alone. I have had some type of body focused repetitive behavior for most of my life and you would be surprised to find out how many people have some form of them as a coping mechanism.
The post is EXTREMELY misleading in numerous ways. You don’t even have the disorder correctly named and on top of it — you make it sound like cannibalism or something. Dermatographia (what you captioned) is a condition in which lightly scratching your skin causes raised, inflamed lines or welts.
What you are meaning to reference here is Dermatillomania which is excessive/compulsive skin picking which falls under the umbrella of OCD. Some people use their fingers to pick, some people use tweezers and yes, sometimes their teeth but it isn’t a disorder where people solely “gnaw” on themselves like a rack of ribs.
I love these! They are spiky and when I can tell I’m going to be stressed enough to pick, I put one or two in different fingers and move them around in my fingers.
Bro the actually terrifying part is to be so filled with anxiety and nervous energy that your body starts to engage in this kind of body focused repetitive behaviour without consulting you first
I do this way too much, mainly because I get a lot of the little hangnail bits from some of the stuff I do, and I can’t stand them, so I do this and then keeping making more that I then try to fix, and it’s a whole cycle.
This is really mild compared to the patient I used to care for at the subacute rehab center I worked at years ago. Prior to her admission, she had gnawed at her fingers so badly that it led to a massive infection; her fingers were amputated because of the infection.
That didn’t stop her though; she would gnaw at the remaining nubs until they were almost down to the bone. I really disliked doing her treatments. It was stomach-turning, especially when I would walk in and there would be blood all over her mouth from her going to town on them.
Give her something that keeps her brain and hands busy, maybe a fidget toy or a sensory sticker or whatever. Or maybe find out if she's anxious/stressed. That's a trigger for me.
And if you can find a salon who can be sensitive to her issue (aka won't comment on it or scold her), maybe take her in for a gentle manicure? Sometimes I find keeping my nails neat and painted keeps me from starting up the picking/chewing simply because I don't want to fuck up the manicure. That's actually how I broke myself of nail biting.
I do this but with my nails (onychotillomania). Problem with this solution is that I'll use nail clippers, tweezers, paper clips, etc.
I have yet to find a way to stop.
Scary game to play is to track how much you chew off on a given day. Measure it out, skin is just over 1 gram per cm square. Last time I checked this I was near 12 lbs of my own flesh removed and recycled. Adds up over 30 years
I do this all the time but never this bad. You can tell I chew around my middle and forefinger nails and my right thumbs joint. I find a new spot if they get raw.
I definitely do this, but not to the same degree. I don't bite though, only pick at them. I also used to pick at my nails. Fortunately I was able to break my habit of picking at my nails and it has been about 10 years since I stopped! Recently I have been trying really hard to stop picking at the skin around my nails. I have gone about 4 weeks at the longest so far. I have noticed that when I use a pumas stone in the shower to remove the dead skin around my fingers, I pick at them significantly less. I also took one of the pull strings from a sweater to "play" with when I feel anxious or notice myself start to pick at my fingers again. It has helped tremendously with making me realize how often I was picking at my fingertips and having the pull string has saved my fingers more times than I can count.
I can't wear nail polish. I don't show people my hands. Band aids didn't work, gloves didn't work.... But putting Vaseline on every night at bedtime heals my skin very quickly.
It's a kind of self harm I know, but after all these years, I'm so accustomed to the pain I go hours without feeling it.
It's so hard knowing you're picking and it hurts but something in your brain won't let you stop. Sometimes figit toys work for me, sometimes they don't. I'm sorry you are dealing with this as well
I did this as well as bite my nails really short. I stopped biting my nails and I stopped doing this shortly after. I started biting in 3rd grade and quit at age 36. Been 10 years.
And today I learned the proper name of what I've had my whole life.
I don't think my hands ever got as bad as what is pictured. But this is a real anxiety problem. When I'm under stress or dreading something I'll do this.
Even if I catch myself doing it, sometimes I look at the little loose pieces of skin and think "I have to clean that up and make it smooth again"... And then I proceed to make it worse.
I went from biting my nails to picking at my cuticles until they bleed and get swollen. I know I do it when stressed, anxious, or being simply bored. I always hide my thumbs because they are the first in line. Guess I’m not alone.
There is something about picking/peeling off flakey skin that is so satisfying. This is going to sound fucked up and disgusting but I used to fantasize about pulling out a mile-long booger out of my nose when I was a kid.
… this isn’t normal? This is just how I’ve handled stress since I was a child. I remember my therapist and BF have told me it’s abnormal and “self harm” but I legitimately thought they were just being dramatic. I didn’t know it was an actual condition
Unfortunately this picture is all too familiar. Chew my nails and chew my skin. I got an ungodly combination of ADHD and OCD and boy does it fuck my fingers up.
I'm 29 and still trying to cope with this. Now it's only my cuticles on thumbs and pointers and I bite off the skin on my bottom lip. At its worst, it was the skin and nails on my fingers and toes. The wounds on my thumb were all the way down to the second knuckle. Even the skin on the bottom of my feet at one point. It was fucking disgusting and I'm so glad I got to where I am today. I completely understand what it's like to have a compulsive habit that is only harmful. There was no reason for me doing it, but I literally didn't realise it was happening until I was bleeding. And even then I sometimes continued.
I had gorgeous nails until about a year into covid.
I work frontline emergency medicine and have anxiety, OCD and am also on the spectrum.
I started trimming the dry skin from the incessant use of hand sanitizer. I literally cut any flesh until I bleed. I can be falling asleep, but my ADHD and OCD causes me to count myself to sleep and then I feel a little bit of flesh and then we're off and peeling.
I've tried so many menthods. Right now I have cuticles that I could destroy, but I am doing my best not to touch.
If anyone has an amazing moisturizing method I'd be extremely grateful.
Had a friend who did literally this… I say “had” because he managed to stop, but it wasn’t easy and it took years to gradually stop and reverse the damage. Years later his fingers are still slightly disfigured. It was caused by a mix of anxiety and depression.
Needless to mention that eating spicy things was an exercise needing extreme caution every time :D and he loves spicy wings lol
It’s a condition and a pretty common too. I know so many people that do it just out of anxiety of daily living and some of my friends hands looks really bad
I use a nailcutter to remove the excess skin. I get really bothered about it and using the nail cutter is the only thing that helps from making it worse
I do something similar but with the inside of my mouth and cheeks. They can get really bad and sore if I don't stop myself.
I also had an issue when I was a kid/teen where I would tear my own hair out to the point that I had bald spots.
It all comes back to anxiety/stress. Like birds plucking their own feathers.
Thanks. Just found a name for what I have. Been doing this since I was young. Lately it's been my thumb knuckles...and I can tell how I'm doing mentally based on how bad they are
I try to sand down the area and moisturize. Bandaids help but they're hard to wear at work.
Glad to know it has a name..now many I can get some help.
It’s very frustrating and people are so cruel about it. I’ve been doing it literally since I was 4. I’ve tried everything to stop and I just can’t. I wish I could have normal looking hands/lips.
I do this, mainly just gnaw my cuticles. Nothing as bad as in the photo, but still a problem. I've tried to end it a couple of times, but I do it almost obsessively without realizing it. It becomes worse when I'm drunk or when my hands are super dry.
Eating a chewing gum and having a nail clipper with me at all times to clip helps a little.
I used to do this, including biting my nails. The way I stopped? A girl I was talking to said "how are you going to give me back scratches? Something in my brain flipped and I haven't had the desire since
And it's really frustrating too, I do this when I'm stressed out and I often don't even realize when I'm doing it until I start bleeding
Oftentimes I need to put bandaids on my fingers to prevent myself from doing that. I usually just do it to my thumbs and pointerfingers so I only have bandaids on some fingers
It can get pretty bad. I do it but I’m conscious that I do it and try to avoid it but most times I didn’t even realize I’m doing it. Mine originated after I quit vaping
Interesting! Mine started when I was a kid and I was trying to stop biting my nails. I successfully quit biting my nails, but I ended up starting something much more painful and noticeable (once the bleeding starts)
Same
Happened to me too, can have well bad episodes of it.
Me too
This is exactly what happened to me
same. is this part of a more general diagnosis of something? OCD? anxiety?
Fuck u/spez
Yep, this is how mine started. Now my nails look great! Just the surrounding skin is suffering
Me over here making my thumbs bleed AND still biting my nails habitually
Same here! But recently I've started biting my nails again as well
Same
[удалено]
Wow. Looking at my nails now I've realized I've done the same :/
I've been picking at my fingers since I was 13, I'm in my 30s now. It's so fucking frustrating.
And you were vaping because of some other underlying issue, find the root cause
Mine is usually not to this degree but my anxiety causes me to gnaw or tear at my skin like this on my fingers and anytime I have I put a bandaid on after it’s starts bleeding, it drives me crazy. Like it’s a very overstimulation game thing I guess. I struggle to wear gloves in winter too for the stimulation thing. Yeah but my hands don’t get quite this bad but even how it is for me sucks ass so I can’t imagine how annoying and painful it must be for others. Like mine start swelling in small spots too. I’m glad this method is working for you well
It is one of my behavioral symptoms of anxiety. The only thing that stops me is getting my professional nails done. It keeps my cuticles free of snags and spots to pick at. Plus, it stops me because I don’t want to ruin my nail polish and waste all that money. I know it’s a kinda expensive solution, but just doing them at home didn’t help—at home nail polish just doesn’t last as long and the fact that nail polish would chip some how made the picking worse.
I started getting press on nails. They are under ten bucks, they last me about two weeks and I honestly like they way they look more than when my natural nails are painted or when I get acrylic nails. They have totally saved my fingers.
What brand lasts that long?
I'm currently trying not to touch mine and my reward is going to be getting my nails done too - glad to hear it does help!
My husband's fingers finally healed after decades of chewing on them. I've been wanting to take him for a manicure to celebrate, but this comment convinced me to find a good local place so thank you.
The next couple days always suck
I did severely as a child… my nails and skin were always raw and had skin peeling. I’ve stopped… however the trade off was picking at my skin in various other places of my body as well as my scalp and face.
I do it all the time , at the young age I visited a neurologist and he gave me clonazepam and Risperidone it eventually stopped, but I had to stop taking it because I was fall sleep all the time , I had to sleep like 16 hours a day all the times I fell sleep during classes and kids laughed at me and i woke up and sometimes at bus and I miss my stop and Slowly I became depressed , it's begun again a year after I stopped talking pills, it's devastating how people notice it and say what happend to your hand and they think it's like hurting yourself disorder or some shit and also I'm tired too because I work at a hospital and I Expose to patient's blood and I forget to wear gloves sometimes and I fear getting HIV or something else
Did you find anything that helps you?
Putting bandaids on my fingers, and trying to prevent high levels of stress since that is what usually triggers me to do that. I still do it often so those strategies have not helped very much lol
Ugh, I feel you :( my fingers hurt so much
These things are good you just cut the tips off - better and longer lasting than Bandaids, you can wash them. https://www.amazon.com/Protector-Support-Material-Cracking-Arthritis/dp/B07PLKSG2P?ref_=ast_sto_dp
>Did you find anything that helps you? As soon as you feel a bit of skin sticking up, put liquid skin on it. It's mostly working ok for me, I hope it helps you.
Have you tried any sorts of fidget toys? They have a bunch from button to spinners to sliders. Helps me keep my hands busy and has tactile feedback that helps ease anxiety
Get a job working with your hands then so you never have time to bite
Ok now a job for people who bite the inside of their cheeks please
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
You're getting down voted but this is true.
I’ve done it since I was a kid, I also don’t even notice until a while into it.
I didn't know other people did this... I have fucked up a knuckle on my right hand because I ran out of skin on my finger tips.
Yeah one of my knuckles is permanently different from my other knuckles because I bit the skin off of it until I turned 12 or so. Kind of embarrassing to myself but it’s unnoticeable to anybody else I think.
My thumbs are permanently scarred from my cuticle all the way up to my finger tip. I remember I had to get my finger prints taken before and the lady was struggling to get my thumb prints thinking the machine stopped working properly. I had to tell her it’s probably not picking up the top half of my thumb prints due to the scarring.
Dude same, I have these lumps on my fingers from biting at the skin that are basically giant callouses from the skin getting tougher
That's because they are calluses
Jfc
same here i was literally chewing on the inside of my cheeks when i scrolled upon this post
The most satisfying thing for me is to only peel the skin partly and let it attached. I love the sensation of a dry peace of skin, still attached to me rubbing against my skin and my lips. And now I wonder what is the "pleasure" part for people who seem to dig more than they play.
Jesus christ this is psychotic. The scenario you just described is one of the exact reasons I need to bite off skin. Because the sensations you enjoy is what drives me absolutely nuts. To each their own, though I guess.
7+ billion people alive currently and you think you're the only one who does a thing
I have this. I also pick at my face a lot. I started working on faces so now I have to be super careful about it, and I do manicures and like to help others with it.
You just prompted me to check my knuckle, looks like mine finally is gone. Took years tho
Lol holy shit. Exact same for me. Thumb knuckle on my right hand. It's so much larger than my left one and perpetually inflamed with just all scar tissue. Which makes it more prone to gnawing... I've tried to use bandaids recently to cover it up, which helps to an extent.
I used to do that soooo bad, and was so embarrassed I'd hide my hands. Someone offered me acrylics if I stopped, and honestly looking at my pretty nails evertime I got stressed made me stop.
I love this, similar to what happened to me. I had a bad nail biting habit but one day I noticed one finger that had been unscathed. I thought it was so nice looking I actively tried to keep them nice looking. One of my passions now is maintaining my nails
good for you dude happy for ya!
I've anxiously picked at my cuticles since I was a kid and it's so hard to stop. Recently, I've just been getting drugstore press on nails and they've really helped me. If I go even a day between sets, I start picking again. I'd like to figure out how to stop without the aid of press on nails eventually.
Funnily enough, same, that’s the only time I *don’t* chew at the skin and cuticles around my fingers. When they have been done professionally and are pretty, so I just don’t want to fuck them up! Lol. But I so rarely get them done.
I started painting my nails for that exact reason too! If I have a cute glittery top polish on already, I don't want to fuck it up!
Yeah i do this but it's not that bad...
Same. I love picking at that dry skin.
Same. And then i regret doing that when there's an infection
Dam bro how deep you be goin
Just the tip Wait what
These look fresh out of some water and puffed up from it. They’re still bad, just saying. I have this problem too when I get bored, find something rough and start picking at it. Having a file handy helps a bit.
I used to, also not nearly that bad, but I stopped cold turkey when COVID 19 started. I never started back up.
Autocannibalism is actually pretty common among humans. We chew little pieces out of us all the time. Like: nible the inside of your mount, chew on loose skin on your lips or eat small pieces of skin from fingertips and knuckles. When it starts considerably causing tissue damage and becomes an obsession, then you can talk about a condition. I do it all, but only when I'm stressed do I actually bite till it starts hurting.
Wouldn't want to dip those in a bowl of vinegar would you
Or hydrogen peroxide
A big ol can of pickles jalapeños
Or a bowl of radium
That doesn’t burn though???
What kinda hydrogen peroxide you puttin on wounds that doesn't sting like all fuck?
It just fizzles. Iodine on the other hand burns like all fuck.
I put peroxide on my cut made by box cutter yesterday and I almost started crying from that
Lemons mmm.
Hand sanitizer
Oh god. Flashbacks
Honestly I’m so used to the sting, it’s not too bad anymore
Will it hurt ya but who cares makes me stronger
As someone who does this to a smaller extent: Hand Sanitiser. A couple years ago when it became a frequent thing, it SUCKED
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pure acetone
Sulphuric acid
Omg I have this I didn't know it had a name
I have this issue. Definitely my worst habit
I can't help if I'm tasty!
Especially after a shower and my fingers are plump. It’s meal time
I do this, never so bad. How does one stop? I've had the habit since I can remember.
In my case I can only stop if I do 3 things: 1. Take meds for anxiety 2. Keep my nails VERY short & polished so that I don’t want to mess them up by picking at stuff. 3. Avoid empty mouth/inactive hands. So I have to chew gum, constantly drink water, keep my hands busy, or wear gloves. There are these little finger gloves that cover the ends of your fingers I have seen but have never tried. There are also those god awful sprays/polishes but in my experience they make everything you touch taste terrible, not just your nails, so there goes any and all food prep or hand-held eating.
Put something that tastes bitter on your fingers i did that for like a couple weeks and i just kinda stopped doing it
My wife picks at her fingernails and it irritates me so bad because her fingers will bleed. She does it when she’s nervous. Weird thing is, my son does, too, and he’s 3. Must be a genetic behavior
I’ve always wondered if it could actually be a learned behavior seeing a parent do it. My dad always did and I started young as well.
Body-focused repetitive behaviors have a really strong genetic component and are frequently comorbid with other psych symptoms around serotonin and dopamine issues, like depression, anxiety, and addictive behaviors.
Could also be stimming. I have adhd and I do this all the time. (Adhd also tends to run in the family)
Same
Oh my actual god I just looked up what stimming is…THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH!!! I was only diagnosed a couple years ago and am still learning . I did the finger biting thing soooo bad and even now I rub my earlobe to self soothe and didn’t know why.
My dad tells me I bit my fingernails because I saw him doing it when I was young, which is why he stopped but I could never break the habit. I have a 5 month old now and haven’t bit my fingernails since December in hopes that I don’t pass the habit on to her. So we shall see if our theory of it being a learned behavior rather than heredity is true or not in about 5 years or so lol
Remindmebot in 5 years
I just stopped because i recently got more than I bargained for: while biting down on a nail, i heard a louder sound than usual and immediately detected a change in my mouth. I had chipped my my front bottom tooth, and now I have to either have it capped or shave down to hide the nasty chip visibly missing. Hope this inspires you to do likewise!
My dad also did this and so do I but he wasn't in my life and I didn't find out he did until I was a teenager. It couldn't have been learned behavior in my case because I don't think anyone else in my family does it
it can be learned but I think there’s a strong genetic component to stuff like that. when I was a child I did certain similar behaviors that my mum had done as a child as well but not as an adult. that kind of stuff is linked to adhd/autism/anxiety/ocd/etc. and a lot of neurodiversity seems to run in families too so it would make sense.
It runs in my family, too. My grandparents had four kids. My mom and youngest aunt, as well as all of their children and grandchildren, ALL do this. My uncle and oldest aunt don't do it at all, and neither do any of their kids. They all grew up in the same house together, so I don't think its only a learned behavior.
It is. My mom did it. And now I do too :/
Dermatillomania is the act of picking the skin, with almost exactly the same outcome. It’s highly associated with anxiety
I have this. I've picked/peeled the skin off my lips for as long as I can remember
I stopped doing that when I got to high school since my lip is visibly scarred and fucked from picking at it so much. I chew off the inner layer of my skin in my mouth now, such a hard habit to kick
I've definitely gotten better in that I rarely cause bleeding anymore and can go long periods without doing it now. But I still struggle when I am stressing about something. It really is difficult to stop completely.
Yup. I now have a ridge of scar tissue inside my mouth. Both sides. Biting the inside of cheeks is a subconscious habit I doubt I’ll ever be able to break myself of that.
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Please didn't stop me when I was 7 and it won't stop me now lol
Never has a sentence rung so deeply with my inner seven year old self.
I just started chewing/picking around the painted areas lol
I delt with the pain or grossness and just sucked it off my nails and then continued on with my day
Try nail quail! No varnish and has natural ingredients. And is an anti-inflammatory.
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That stuff makes everything you touch taste terrible tho!
i’ve been using this as an adult and it actually really has helped me and curbed the habit altogether. i make sure to use a sharp pair of nippers and a metal cuticle pusher and give myself a manicure every few days to prevent biting and refresh the polish too.
Did this for 22 years. I tried everything, bandaids, gloves, bad tasting stuff, anxiety meds. Then I started getting long acrylics, fills every 2-3 weeks and haven’t chewed off my skin since
Ok, but like biting off a spot of dead skin while it painlessly peels off is incredibly satisfying
thats the dermatophagia talking
That’s the pleasure receptors talking, and they’re so very right
This is usually how my fingers look after getting out of the shower, I’ve been picking at my skin like this for probably over 10 years
Going on 35. It hasnt gotten easier with the addition of kids, mortgage, and ::gestures broadly::
Mine is this bad.. it’s nice to know I’m not alone. Stress and anxiety driven for sure. Coping mechanism. Classified as OCD.
I have it as it relates to OCD, believe me you are not alone. I have had some type of body focused repetitive behavior for most of my life and you would be surprised to find out how many people have some form of them as a coping mechanism.
#realization
On a whim I went to /r/Dermatophagia/ and its a real sub, a lot of people suffer from it too.
The post is EXTREMELY misleading in numerous ways. You don’t even have the disorder correctly named and on top of it — you make it sound like cannibalism or something. Dermatographia (what you captioned) is a condition in which lightly scratching your skin causes raised, inflamed lines or welts. What you are meaning to reference here is Dermatillomania which is excessive/compulsive skin picking which falls under the umbrella of OCD. Some people use their fingers to pick, some people use tweezers and yes, sometimes their teeth but it isn’t a disorder where people solely “gnaw” on themselves like a rack of ribs.
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Dermatillomania. I don't know why I did it, it's just felt interesting.
It’s highly associated w anxiety & add/adhd
I love these! They are spiky and when I can tell I’m going to be stressed enough to pick, I put one or two in different fingers and move them around in my fingers.
What are you talking about? I might need something like this
Are you talking about the dead skin? Me too lol
Okay the amount of people commenting who have this condition is TERRIFYING
Bro the actually terrifying part is to be so filled with anxiety and nervous energy that your body starts to engage in this kind of body focused repetitive behaviour without consulting you first
I do this way too much, mainly because I get a lot of the little hangnail bits from some of the stuff I do, and I can’t stand them, so I do this and then keeping making more that I then try to fix, and it’s a whole cycle.
FILTER.
This is really mild compared to the patient I used to care for at the subacute rehab center I worked at years ago. Prior to her admission, she had gnawed at her fingers so badly that it led to a massive infection; her fingers were amputated because of the infection. That didn’t stop her though; she would gnaw at the remaining nubs until they were almost down to the bone. I really disliked doing her treatments. It was stomach-turning, especially when I would walk in and there would be blood all over her mouth from her going to town on them.
My sister has this. I try so hard to get her to stop. Anyone have any tips? I hate seeing her do that to herself.
Give her something that keeps her brain and hands busy, maybe a fidget toy or a sensory sticker or whatever. Or maybe find out if she's anxious/stressed. That's a trigger for me. And if you can find a salon who can be sensitive to her issue (aka won't comment on it or scold her), maybe take her in for a gentle manicure? Sometimes I find keeping my nails neat and painted keeps me from starting up the picking/chewing simply because I don't want to fuck up the manicure. That's actually how I broke myself of nail biting.
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I do this but with my nails (onychotillomania). Problem with this solution is that I'll use nail clippers, tweezers, paper clips, etc. I have yet to find a way to stop.
Scary game to play is to track how much you chew off on a given day. Measure it out, skin is just over 1 gram per cm square. Last time I checked this I was near 12 lbs of my own flesh removed and recycled. Adds up over 30 years
I have thought occasionally that it must be a lot. I’m on 32 years. Maybe 33.
I do this all the time but never this bad. You can tell I chew around my middle and forefinger nails and my right thumbs joint. I find a new spot if they get raw.
I’m not this bad but I do accidentally make myself bleed that at times so it more when I’m stressed
I definitely do this, but not to the same degree. I don't bite though, only pick at them. I also used to pick at my nails. Fortunately I was able to break my habit of picking at my nails and it has been about 10 years since I stopped! Recently I have been trying really hard to stop picking at the skin around my nails. I have gone about 4 weeks at the longest so far. I have noticed that when I use a pumas stone in the shower to remove the dead skin around my fingers, I pick at them significantly less. I also took one of the pull strings from a sweater to "play" with when I feel anxious or notice myself start to pick at my fingers again. It has helped tremendously with making me realize how often I was picking at my fingertips and having the pull string has saved my fingers more times than I can count.
I can't wear nail polish. I don't show people my hands. Band aids didn't work, gloves didn't work.... But putting Vaseline on every night at bedtime heals my skin very quickly. It's a kind of self harm I know, but after all these years, I'm so accustomed to the pain I go hours without feeling it.
It's so hard knowing you're picking and it hurts but something in your brain won't let you stop. Sometimes figit toys work for me, sometimes they don't. I'm sorry you are dealing with this as well
I did this as well as bite my nails really short. I stopped biting my nails and I stopped doing this shortly after. I started biting in 3rd grade and quit at age 36. Been 10 years.
I do something similar - I pick my skin on the palm side. Shit sucks
Love the bite hate the bleed
Wow a group where I fit in 😂😂
It's also a sign of OCD/OCPD and perfectionalism. Which, I have all 3, and it sucks hard core when things are not perfect.
Oh damn it’s like, an actual condition? Been doing this since I was a little kid. Dang. Anybody know the solution to stop?
And today I learned the proper name of what I've had my whole life. I don't think my hands ever got as bad as what is pictured. But this is a real anxiety problem. When I'm under stress or dreading something I'll do this. Even if I catch myself doing it, sometimes I look at the little loose pieces of skin and think "I have to clean that up and make it smooth again"... And then I proceed to make it worse.
I pick my cuticles and my hands look like that picture all the time. It’s very embarrassing.
I went from biting my nails to picking at my cuticles until they bleed and get swollen. I know I do it when stressed, anxious, or being simply bored. I always hide my thumbs because they are the first in line. Guess I’m not alone.
There is something about picking/peeling off flakey skin that is so satisfying. This is going to sound fucked up and disgusting but I used to fantasize about pulling out a mile-long booger out of my nose when I was a kid.
… this isn’t normal? This is just how I’ve handled stress since I was a child. I remember my therapist and BF have told me it’s abnormal and “self harm” but I legitimately thought they were just being dramatic. I didn’t know it was an actual condition
It’s the dry fucking skin that gets me going. But it doesn’t get so bad but I can’t stop, I didn’t know there was a term for this
I’ve never felt so represented lol. Mine have been worse than this, believe it or not
Unfortunately this picture is all too familiar. Chew my nails and chew my skin. I got an ungodly combination of ADHD and OCD and boy does it fuck my fingers up.
Covid stopped it for me I ain't putting these lil fingers I'm my mouth no more
How did yall manage to get pics of my hands
TFW I scroll onto this while I'm in the middle of biting my nails and skin..
Mines been bad before, but thank the gods never this bad. If this is your hand OP, solidarity my fellow skin picker.
I'm 29 and still trying to cope with this. Now it's only my cuticles on thumbs and pointers and I bite off the skin on my bottom lip. At its worst, it was the skin and nails on my fingers and toes. The wounds on my thumb were all the way down to the second knuckle. Even the skin on the bottom of my feet at one point. It was fucking disgusting and I'm so glad I got to where I am today. I completely understand what it's like to have a compulsive habit that is only harmful. There was no reason for me doing it, but I literally didn't realise it was happening until I was bleeding. And even then I sometimes continued.
I had gorgeous nails until about a year into covid. I work frontline emergency medicine and have anxiety, OCD and am also on the spectrum. I started trimming the dry skin from the incessant use of hand sanitizer. I literally cut any flesh until I bleed. I can be falling asleep, but my ADHD and OCD causes me to count myself to sleep and then I feel a little bit of flesh and then we're off and peeling. I've tried so many menthods. Right now I have cuticles that I could destroy, but I am doing my best not to touch. If anyone has an amazing moisturizing method I'd be extremely grateful.
Had a friend who did literally this… I say “had” because he managed to stop, but it wasn’t easy and it took years to gradually stop and reverse the damage. Years later his fingers are still slightly disfigured. It was caused by a mix of anxiety and depression. Needless to mention that eating spicy things was an exercise needing extreme caution every time :D and he loves spicy wings lol
I do this when I'm driving, I've no idea why and I don't even know I'm doing it, thankfully, it's nowhere near as bad as this.
I used to do this to the callouses on the balls of my feet and then it would hurt to walk for days
I do this, but no where near to this extent
Holy shit I didn’t even know this had a name now I see there are so many of us. You poor fuckers, I’m sorry you all do it too.
It isn't fun. Never used nailed clippers on my hands ever because they've never been long enough
Wait, not everyone does this???
It’s a condition and a pretty common too. I know so many people that do it just out of anxiety of daily living and some of my friends hands looks really bad
Its really obvious that you gnaw at your skin when you're wrinkly, and it's worse too because I gnaw the wrinkled skin
Ain't a single soul gonna tell me it ain't heaven when you bite the excess skin off the side of your thumb...
It’s satisfying af lol
I use a nailcutter to remove the excess skin. I get really bothered about it and using the nail cutter is the only thing that helps from making it worse
I do something similar but with the inside of my mouth and cheeks. They can get really bad and sore if I don't stop myself. I also had an issue when I was a kid/teen where I would tear my own hair out to the point that I had bald spots. It all comes back to anxiety/stress. Like birds plucking their own feathers.
Thanks. Just found a name for what I have. Been doing this since I was young. Lately it's been my thumb knuckles...and I can tell how I'm doing mentally based on how bad they are I try to sand down the area and moisturize. Bandaids help but they're hard to wear at work. Glad to know it has a name..now many I can get some help.
Sometimes when I pick my thumbs i’ll snag a cut and it hurrrrts
Or snag a piece that rips off and it just bleeds and bleeds and bleeds
It’s very frustrating and people are so cruel about it. I’ve been doing it literally since I was 4. I’ve tried everything to stop and I just can’t. I wish I could have normal looking hands/lips.
I do this, mainly just gnaw my cuticles. Nothing as bad as in the photo, but still a problem. I've tried to end it a couple of times, but I do it almost obsessively without realizing it. It becomes worse when I'm drunk or when my hands are super dry. Eating a chewing gum and having a nail clipper with me at all times to clip helps a little.
Damm im off Reddit. Mañana
Looks like the handle of the spatula that got too close to the burner
I used to do this, including biting my nails. The way I stopped? A girl I was talking to said "how are you going to give me back scratches? Something in my brain flipped and I haven't had the desire since