stop eating my fingers

I’ve got to quit

ever since I can remember I have been picking at my fingernails and the skin around them, and biting at them and and the skin around them. Within the last couple of years I have been able to grow them out occaisionally but I always start biting and picking again. I also have fairly recently, within the past couple of years, started picking at my skin on my arms… I now have scars that are fairly visable and I want to stop all of these… but cant. ugh

how I can go for months without doing this, start again when under certain kinds of stress and then have trouble stopping. It just feels so familiar and somehow comforting. Not very surprising. It’s part of who I am, in a way, because I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember.

I have yet to get to the bottom of this habit. I’ve managed to stay clear of boredom-induced picking fairly easily. The relapses come in stressful times. I suspect it’s not only the stress… I think it has to do with being able to concentrate better. I notice that it can actually help me to calm down when under pressure. That means I’m self-destructing to release tension. I wonder why such a thing would work… Might be a barely conscious strategy for coping with anxiety. And it might have to do with aggression directed towards myself for not dealing with things in a manner that would have kept anxiety at a minimum. Yes, that’s pretty much it, I think.

^{I’ll stop again now :) These relapses make me all the happier for knowing that I can and will stop again and that I now have healthy-looking fingers for the majority of time.}

I have not been able to get a handle on this horrible fetish I have with tearing away at the skin off ALL and yes I did say all of my fingers. I have been doing this since forever. I have tried to sit and figure out at which points in life I do it the most and seems like it is such a bad habit with me now that I do it for every reason possible. I am currently going through a divorce and I find it harder every day. If I could find some way to stop I am willing to do about anything. right now to this date the only thing that will deter me is getting artificial nails done and believe me thats painful in itself because of all the broken skin. Please help me because this has been my problem for 32 years and I am sad because I have a 13 year old daughter that I do not want following in my foot steps. Please help!

I did not even know that I chewed my fingered compulsively until just now! seriously, i have become completely enlightened…and other people do it too?? I definitely thought I was alone. I also pick at blemishes on my face sometimes, which is socially embarassing and makes my skin worse. short of going to a shrink and going through expensive treatment, can anyone suggest good methods to stop such compulsive bevhaviors? I feel like I can’t control myself sometimes, but at others I feel confident that I can just tell myself not to, any advice?

I remember someone on here asked about shared character traits a while ago and it made me rather curious about this. I think it could actually be related to our MBTI type. I’m INFP and know three other people who also pick at their cuticles or used to do that and all of them are INFP as well. So I think that this type might be more prone to finger biting. Would be interesting to get a bigger sample to see if it’s really related.

^{By the way, I’m once again in the process of stopping. And though I’m under pressure because of upcoming exams and procrastination, it’s still going well. Nail polish works wonders for me.}

sigh i learned this is actually a heriditary type of ocd lol I learnedddd after i walked in and my son is biting his toes and his finger at the same time (and he does it till they bleed) it freaked me out quickly i took myself to a behavoral doctor and yesss its notttt just me so one step to downing the aweful hidden habit acknowledging that ur not alone and that the reason u do it is due to boredom anxiety or some other feeling haha anything will do really but basically when i took adderal it sorta stopped i got a trampoline but its kinda lessoned i notice that when i pumice stone my hands and they are all smooth and then i get my nails done i tend to not bite as much but then bam a nail pops off and there i am like a animal sigh anyways my whole family does it and its soooo hard to break it but i do know that i am self concious and i have a low self esteem i get in bad relationships constantly and now look to self improve overall being that my thumb bleeds and i dont even know until its rolling off my elbow means that not only for my mind but my body as well lol

Omg I’ve been biting the skin around my nails since i was about 10, I’m now 17. I’ve tried everything to stop and almost have a few times but when I get stressed I just do it subconciously. I hate going into water with people around because the loose skin goes all white and looks terrible. All my friends call me weird so its good to know others do the same thing :)

My boyfriend has stared hitting my hand away from my mouth everytime he catches me doing it but it hasn’t really helped.

I hope so quit soon because I feel like such a freak! But not as much as I did knowing you guys are going through the same thing :)

Honestly I forgot about having this goal on here, but I’ve still been struggling with the finger/thumb-biting. I tried harder when I changed jobs but with the stress of changing jobs it got bad again.

I’ve seen some posts about foot files but for me a nice long nail file seems to help for a while – I file all the rough skin off and then it makes it easier to realize I’m about to bite because it’s so smooth and silky. But if I don’t keep filing, the skin soon turns “bitable” again and I end up destroying the all over again. Vicious cycle. Today one of my thumbs began to bleed a little, something I can generally avoid nowdays. Very not good, that.

To others who are fighting this problem: We will succeed!! WE WILL!! I think the person who said they’re going to simply try for longer bouts of success and shorter failures has the right idea. Sometimes the temptation is just too great and maybe the stress of trying to quit for good only serves to make it even harder. GAH!

The only times I DON’T bite or pick are when I am happy, eating, talking to people, or occupying both my fingers and my mouth (knitting and chewing gum). I’ve torn my fingers apart because finals are just stressing me out :( I remember a week where it made a dead stop. It was the middle of summer two years ago, I was at a fair with my best friend, and I had absolutely no worries.