Chewing skin around nails.

[LosingMyself]

I don't chew it but I pick at the skin around my nails and cuticles when I am stressed, anxious, or if I see a crack, split, or flaw somewhere in the skin. I'm terrible for picking at flaws. Something inside me thinks that if I pick at the areas and make them smooth then the flaws will go away, in reality it causes scabs and scar tissue and causes more of a problem than before.

I don't just do this to my fingers, but to almost any bump, cut, scratch, scab, ingrown hair, anything that I can feel on my skin's surface. When I was going through my acne stages (12-18) my face was a horrid sight sometimes due to the amount I'd pick at it.

Sometimes I can be a couple months without it happening severely, and then when it does I'm so embarassed. I work in sales and people often are watching what I'm doing with my hands when I'm demo-ing product, I always feel like everyone is looking at the red puffiness of scar tissue and missing skin around my nails. I'll usually do it for a week at a time, not really even realizing what I'm doing until its far too late.

Luckily I've found a really great hand cream that was designed for Norwegian fisherman with dry hands and it works wonders on smoothing, healing and restoring the hardened skin and scar tissue.

[Nothing&Nowhere]

Ah I do this, so much. Often I'll rip or chew off some skin on my fingers and won't notice they're bleeding.. and someone will go "Omg you're bleeding, what did you do??" and then I'm stuck saying "Ohh...I bit them..." which just sounds psycho.

[downtherabbithole]

Yep, I've got a bit of an oral fixation (which isn't as dirty as it sounds lol) so I always have something in my mouth and more often than not its my fingers which I will just gnaw on. I'm also quite like LosingMyself in that I will just keep picking at any imperfection in my skin and I'm quite prone to ingrown hairs and stuff on my arms so I pick at them a lot. I agree hand cream can make such a difference. If my hands are moisturised and smooth then I'll leave them alone.

[scarlettsupper]

I'm a lot better now but I have to be really aware not to do it. I've got scars on my thumbs from doing it too much for years!
It's such a strange habit - eating yourself...

[snowprincess]

Ah I do this, so much. Often I'll rip or chew off some skin on my fingers and won't notice they're bleeding.. and someone will go "Omg you're bleeding, what did you do??" and then I'm stuck saying "Ohh...I bit them..." which just sounds psycho.

omg i get this all the time, i have bandaids all over my fingers and people are like what happened? and im like oh a "hangnail" and there like wtf kinda hang nails do you get. I chew on my nails, and rip the skin when im upset i like the pain of ripping, and i chew on then when im really nervous or sad.