Biting Cuticles- No, Not Nails

Bella, I do the same thing.(referring to your fist post)

Morning Bella

Noddy is so on target with all of this.

Having borderline OCD, I try to stay on the alert for stuff like this.

Sometimes after doing something that requires either repetition, or mostly in my case, adding of numbers/counting, I'll find this strong urge to "do that again, touch that again, fold that again, add that again, turn that again, make sure you did that"

The only solution, pure and simple, is to acknowledge you have that urge, that it's indeed there......and then NOT do it.......just that once. Repeat as urge arises.

It will be harder at first, but as simple as it sounds, that's how you stop. You might be very uncomfortable at first, but that will go away.

After awhile that particular "itch" will abate.

Me tooooo...i bite and peel my cuticles - i do not bite my nails though...Am i a borderline OCD case?? i never knew ...

That was funny....

Welcome!

Not necessarily, didn't mean to imply anyone had OCD.
OCD is not about nail biting, believe me.

It's just that any habit that's done unconsciously, repeatedly, is scrathing an itch.

The urge builds and builds immediately prior to the act. The only way to releive the urge is to perform the act. However, it's actually counterproductive since performing the act reinforces the urge. The only way to make the urge go away is to resist it.

Resist it once,
resist it twice, etc. it eventually goes away, since you've let the urge know you're not going to give in.

Doing something unpleasant to your hands, in this case, most likely wouldn't make any difference.

Putting nasty tasting stuff on your nails will just make you gnaw at them all the more to get rid of the nasty stuff. In the process, reinforcing the urge.

As simple as it sounds, the only way to stop is to acknowledge you want to do something.....then, don't do it.

Hand to mouth is a psychological ""addiction"" type wich is part of the reason it is so hard to quit smoking.

It keeps the person -busy- when they normally wouldn't be for starters.

It is also an engrained reward action.

Smoking causes the person to feel high wether they realize it or not.

One of the ways to get high from smoking according to the brain is to have the hand near the mouth in an up and down repeated motion.

Alot of people also substitute food in placement of cigarettes, because according to the brain, the hand to mouth brings about a desired reward .

Alot of times they don't even know they are doing it, until they see they have put on a few pounds after they stop smoking.

oh yeah.
count me in the cuticle bitting thinggy too.

I use light cloth gloves with lotion slathered on my hands under neath to get rid of the bad skin.

I wear the gloves over night and in the morning, I dont have the lose skin anymore.

I have pretty much gotten over the habit now. My hands look really good.
But, I have traded the biting with other nervous habits.

I put nail polish on this weekend.

I've been free and clear from cuticle tearing for 5, count 'em, 5 days now.

Good goin', ehBeth!

The addiction-kicking mojo is strong in casa de la doggies.

<doin' the mojo dance>

I'm glad you can dance.

My thumb is a bloody mass of meat after the self-masticatorial abusefest I just put myself through. At least I'm not smoking.

but did it feel good?

No. It hurt. And now I hate myself.

Well, no one wants to listen to me.

go ahead and maim yourself.

What? You mean this?



Easier said than done. I listened. And now I'm bleeding. I've been trying the "simply don't do it" method for years. Always ends in me bloodying myself up. Got anything else?

kicky, why not try the 'rubberband' method. surely won't hurt as much as chewing your paws ? hbg

Wear gloves until you break the habit.

I know it'll look silly at work, but if your hands look as bad as you describe, your coworkers just might thank you.

cuffing your hands behind your back might work too . hbg

I never said it was easy. Ultimately that is the way. Snapping rubber bands, bad tasting stuff don't touch the root of the problem.

You'll engage in the behavior regardless of what you do to "punish" yourself for the behavior.

Everytime you engage in the behavior, you are physcially creating a stronger bond in your brain to keep it up. By not engaging in the behavior, although horrible, chips away at that bond. Eventually, the bond weakens enough to be broken.

Each time you become aware you are engaging in the finger biting, or want to, you need to tell yourself that for this ONE time you won't do it.

After you do that a few times in a row....your brain get really pissed off and starts DEMANDING you bite your fingers. If you resist one more time your are successful.

Your brain will stay pissed for awhile, then, slowly give up. Too slowly I'm afraid.

How do you think I felt when my brain kept telling me to "touch the corner of the coffee table"

"ok, touch the corner of the coffee table again...you didn't do it exactly right"

"no......do it again."

That would go one until I had to "add up that column of numbers", "maybe that total wasn't right, add it again"

Lots of people who engage in OC behaviors manage to hide it very well, you wouldn't have known it about me unless you watched me a long time. When my husband noticed I always had the calculator in my hand, he asked me about it.

My response was "It comforts me"

Well.....it did. It comforted me in that I didn't have to endue the pain of my brain telling me to do something. I just did it. Fortunatley, the drug I started taking for panic attacks also address that. It quieted the brain. It was finally like..."I don't give a damn if you do it or not"

Biting your fingers in the same way is a comfort to you....because you don't have to deal with the discomfort of NOT biting them. It literally is a little addiction.

Does that make sense? It's a matter of chemical imbalance, which we create ourselves. Some are just worse than others.

Seriously, does anyone else deal with this? I know I'm not alone. I used to think if I told anyone, I'd be admitting to be crazy.

Well, cuticle biting is just a bad habit more or less and surely we've all had bad habits in the past that we've successfully broken, right? The same rules apply with this as with anything else.
JUST DON'T DO IT ANYMORE.