does anyone pick their thumbs?

I'm reading your post and thinking that I could have written that! My thumbs are always a mess and I am usually sporting two band-aids. It's SO hard to stop, but I think keep it moist helps. Either lotion or neosoprin - it's the dryness that gets me going! Good luck on stopping before your wedding - you can do it!

It can be done!! I've made it over 1 month without biting my thumbs longest in my entire life. Now the urge is almost completely gone! The first few weeks I bit the skin on my lips, I know I was just trading one area for another but it helped, plus the skin on my lips completely heals in one night. By the third week I started using chapstick and lip gloss everytime my lips felt dry to make the possibility of biting lower. And now I just find something to chew on and it's helped me this far. Good Luck everyone.

I have the same problem...I am female...the only way I have found a fix for the problem is to go get my nails done with fake ones....then I cant pick at them because they are not sharp enough to cause any significant destruction...but as soon as they come off....Im back at it.......my thumbs look raw ,even bloody at times,hurt even and over all horrible.I dont understand why my obsession with this picking of the skin around them.... but getting my nails done again will be the only fix... let me add some info here...before making a embarrassing trip to the nail salon and them seeing my mutilation of my thumbs...I will get a loofah scrub pad you use for your feet and scrub them back down smooth to were they are not as jagged with skin hanging off and are more smooth...then I put as much oil and lotion on them to make them look a presentable as possible before a trip to my manicurist...I wish i knew a way to stop doing this besides getting fake nails...but thats the only solution so far Ive came up with that truly works...at least while they are on.

I am so happy to find this site and read about people who have been dealing with the same issues I have for my entire life. I am 40 years old and have been picking my thumbs since I was a small child...as long as I can remember. The sides of my thumbs and cuticles have no feeling except when I pick until I bleed, which is often. I am constantly covering my bloody thumbs with bandaids and my hands always look gross. My picking is not limited to my thumbs...I pick all my other fingers too, though not as often. I have also graduated to picking the skin on my heels and the outsides of my feet, often untill I bleed. I have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) and have read that the dermatillamania is closely associated with anxiety. I agree with some of the posts I have read...acrylic manicures help a lot because the nails become too thick to do too much damage. But I cannot afford to keep up with it. Any other tips on how to deal with this thing would be greatly appreciated:) Stephanie Crystal

I have a problem where i use tweezers to rip off my cuticals from my finger nails. I think i do have a problem because 3 times a day or more. I don't know how to stop, someone please please help me find a way to stop :(

I'm so pleased to have found this site. I really hope there are people using it frequently as I need help. I am almost 32 & have been lucking my cuticles, the sides of my nails where they join my fingers & my finger & thumb skin, for as long as I can remember, at least 20 years but probably more. My thumbs are the worst & my right hand is usually a lot worse than my left. I am right handed so put this down to using my right hand more & therefore the skin get harder quicker so has to be removed for that smooth feeling! I bite, pick, pull, gnaw & cut to get all the skin off. I can peel large layers off at once. The sides if my thumbs are always red, raw, painful, hard to bend, bleeding & if I'm honest, permanently damaged, as is my right middle finger to the point where my nail bed has been damaged & my nail doesn't grow properly any more, it's completely mishapen. I've NEVER googled the problem until today. So here I am. My husband nags me & says really nastily that I look like I have dead hands. He shouts & gets stroppy when I say I can't stop. He doesn't understand but doesn't really want to. My sister does it & although I have no contact with my Dad, Mum says he did it too. Genetic?!!!

WOW, I thought I was alone in this world. I have been picking and biting and tearing at my thumbs for years. I have caused so much damage to my nail beds that my thumb nails grow with horizontal and vertical deep ridges. I start picking and don't even realize that I am doing it until I notice blood and wonder where it came from then I see the mess I have made of my thumbs; my right thumb seems to always be worse as I am right handed. I have tried to keep them moisturized but nothing seems to really help soften the skin long enough. I most recently had acrylic trips on them but had to remove them due to fungus caused by an inadequate seal. People say "Just stop picking already" but they have no idea how hard it is; it's like telling a smoker or an alcoholic to just stop. I find myself picking while driving in the car or like yesterday while talking to a friend who came back home to visit for the holidays. I turned to finish my shopping and the throbbing started; I looked down at my thumbs and thought "Why? boy you did a number on them this time." I have pictures of myself with friends and you can see me picking at my right thumb with my ring finger...

I'm 17 and I do the same thing to my thumbs. I won't even realize I was picking them until my fingers start to get wet, then I realized I picked enough for them to bleed. Sometimes I'll realize i have been picking so I'll put a band aid over them but that usually doesn't do much. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I don't get harassed or asked why. Only one person tries to make me stop. My thumbs are often sore and red with scabs all of the inner sides. Both thumbs. Usually tend's the be the thumb I can get a better grip on. I don't think I know anyone else that does this. I tend to find satisfaction out of pulling up the rest of the skin that I have already started picking at. And I don't think I'm quite able to stop.

I have been picking the skin and chewing it off my thumbs! Its like smoking or drinking i cant stop. And the bad thing is im 13 and i want a Girlfriend its hard to get one with red all over your hands. But now i've found a solution GUM! its cheap and easy just chew it should help the habbit. however you might do it in your sleep so

I'm going to have to reiterate what others have been saying in that I'm really glad I've found this website/forum..didn't know it existed and that there are loads of other people going through the same thing! Alike sorethumb, I've also been picking the skin along the sides of my thumbs. I think they're the worst off, followed by a few other fingers..but my problem is that most of the time I don't notice that I'm doing it because I'm so preoccupied thinking about something else, and I only notice once it hurts or I start bleeding..! Which is annoying considering I've been trying to stop for a long time! I don't quite remember when I started, must've been during my early teens, and I'm 23 now. Really hoping to stop, and trying to keep mindful about it as well, to no avail! I would really appreciate any suggestions =) Many thanks everyone! This forum is so helpful to me already!

Hello. I am 16 and have been picking the skin around my thumbs my whole life, as well the skin around my other fingers, but like you, my thumbs are the worst. They are red and raw, and constantly bleeding. I have done it so often, it hardly hurts anymore. I am embarrassed to go to a nail salon, and when my friends offer to do my nails at parties, I hurt their feelings by saying no, and then taking my hands from them. If people notice my torn up thumbs, I lie and say I cut them. I know people notice, and it is awful when i catch them staring at my thumbs. I am interested in becoming an actress, but i know i can never follow my dreams with my fingers torn up like this. I try and stop my self constantly, but i don't have any will power. Occasionally, i will wake up any the wounds on my thumbs and fingers will be partially healed, and i think to myself, this is it, time to stop, but i just reopen the wounds. Most of the time, i barely notice what Im doing until i draw blood or i hurt myself. Please help me stop.

I am sitting here with band aids on with neosporine. I just cannot believe there are other people out there with this problem. I am embarrassed all the time and hide my hands. My thumb nails are so destroyed I cannot even get fake nails. My hair, make up and clothing is perfect to a T every day but my thumb nails are disgusting. I am a nervous nelly and cannot sit still for two seconds. I am 48 years old and my mother is constantly telling me to stop picking... I have been doing this for as long as I can remember.

I have this too, I am In my thirties and have been doing it as long as I can remember, my thumbs are sore, to me they don't look too bad, I only realised that this was not normal today! When I got married this was a big fear for me also, I got acyrillic nails and I could not pick with them! It was great! I got them a couple of months before so that my thumbs healed up, I have kids now and they are not practical for my everyday life but my wedding pics look good! My son hates it when I pick, he tells me to stop and he's only six!

And I only recently found out 1 month ago that when I pick at my eyelashes that a condition also! Seriously no one talks about this! I have both and just thought it was a bad habit! Thank you skin pick.com!

After another weekend of picking the skin off around the cuticles on my thumbs and making them bleed I decided to google and found this site with people who have the exact same problem. I'm mid 40s, male and have been a picker and biter for at least the last 30 years. I managed to stop biting my finger nails about 12 years ago so my fingers have healthy and normal nails but this has made my thumbnail picking even worse (transferred the compulsion?) to the point that the nails themselves are warped and no longer grow straight. They are red with skin missing on the inside and cuticles and a constant source of shame. I have developed many ways of hiding my thumbs from people including my partner of 10 years who has never noticed them. My previous partner gasped in horror at the site of my thumbnails so I have been sure to avoid this since. I also have same level of compulsive disorder with my face and seem to always focus on one particular area... for 7 years it was in in-grown hair and cyst under my chin, now a cyst under my eyebrow which I cannot leave alone (the one under the chin has gone). Like others on this forum, my behaviour feels like one of a perpetual cycle - picking makes me feel that I am 'fixing' the affected area to achieve perfection, it makes it worse, and then I pick even more to fix the faults I have created. I know that I need to break the cycle but know I cannot do this without help. I was wondering if there existed any help/support groups out there?