im 20 and ive been eating my finger skin all my life.

I pick my fingers too.. I eat at the skin.. and I chew my nails.. my fingers look like nubs. I also have a scab picking problem that I can not control... I eat them too.. I know its nasty.. but I cant help it. You may have a compulsion.. although Im not sure if you do... simply because if you can stop the scabs, cutting, and biting nails.. then I feel confident you could stop this too... and then again.. you might not be able to. I tell ya.. it sucks to be like this... but at least we know that we arent the only ones. I wish you best in tryin to beat this demon! Good luck...

I've been biting the skin off of my nails for as long as i can remember and now that i'm in college the stress of school had definitely made it worse. I'm glad to see that I'm not alone. I also twist the hair at the front of my head ...sigh

hi, im 14 going on 15 in a few weeks, and i pick/bite the skin around my fingers to the point where i bleed, i know gross! it is so amazing to read everyone's story and know im not a gross freak! im always worrying about people seeing my fingers and freaking out. and when my friend saw them he wouldn't leave me alone about it and i had no idea how to explain it to him. i don't know why i do it, i just do. and i ENJOY it! i also bite my lip to the point where im almost severely bleeding, and.... i know how gross this sounds...... i then i kind of suck on my lip to..... drink the blood! and i like the taste....... alot. maybe it's because for the majority of my life my family hasn't done so well financially, and there is never really anything to eat. so i think part of the finger picking/lip biting problem is mentally, because i pick my fingers when im anxious, and i bite my lip when im hungry and really bored. is it wierd to like the taste of blood? honestly, with all the phiobias and disorders, i think im pretty lucky for only having what i have, but one of my resolutions this year is to stop picking or biting ( or both! ), so im going to find a way that works for me to quit! oh and btw, anyone know a solution that doesnt involve having short nails? because i've always had short nails ( i used to bite my nails, but i stopped by always having short nails so there would be nothing to bite! ) but that doesnt seem to help me stop picking the skin around my fingers...... anyway! thank-you to everyone for your stories! i took them all to heart and i recieved a great deal of comfort by discovering im not the only person out there with this "bad habit", because i've only met one other person with it, and lets just say he's not much of a talker, but yea..... thank-you so much! i hope i don't have this problem until im 20! here's hoping! (5 years to go.....) XD

Hey Im Kristin- I posted pictures of my hands on my blog that I just started on 43things.com My user name is krawckri. I am 22 this Friday and live in Michigan. The pictures are only from 4 days of NOT touching my fingers what so ever! Every night my boyfriend- who encouraged me to stop- "files" my fingers lightly with a nail file and then rubs Gold Bond hand lotion on them. The longest I have ever gone NOT biting/eating/picking my fingers is a month about a year ago. Then of course stress got to me and I wreaked painful hacov on them allllll over again. Im trying to find some earlier pictures of my hands where they were REALLY bad, like bleeding or just red as hell. (gross) In my daily life I cup my hands when I write to hide my fingers, wear hoodies alot with thumbholes to hide my hands, and always have my hands in my pockets, balled up in my lap between my legs, or wrapped around my stearing wheel tightly. I have been fortunate to never been made fun of for this condition and didn't even think it WAS a condition untill about a year ago when I began seeking help online. My whole life I've only know 2 other ppl to have issues like me with biting, gnawing, or chewing on the fingers. Good to know we are not alone! I think I started biting when I was about nine. My cuticles would peel and I would bite them off, then then ripped along my finger more and more. This would hurt so I would start to gnaw on my finger applying pressure with my teeth. Before you knew it, it felt good- that is until I continued to bite and rip the skin off and pain, puffyness, and scabbing kicked in. It developed into a form of stress relief/boredom cure for me. My OCD. Recently I decided to grow out my nails too. It sucks cuz I wanna show off my nails. I paint them bright sparkly nude colors so they stick out just enough to remind me not to bite them. I do this cuz I know ppl will notice my hands. I see them noticing and it's just a big uncomfortable reminder how bad my hands look. The pigment is already down a from red to pink, to now light pink/nude. And my fingers are sooo soft! Like I said I put pictures up on 43things.com please take a look. (krawckri- category, stop eating my fingers) I hope more ppl will also join me, post on blogs, and upload pictures. This would greatly encourage all of us to finally see progress "FIRST HAND".

wow i never would have thought so many people had the same problem as me. im 15 and have been biting the skin off my fingers since preschool. i also used to do it to my toes! its just so hard to stop. as well as that i used to bite inside my mouth, but my dads a dentist and told me to stop because apparantly after a while ( a long while mind you) its possible for it to become cancerous. so a word of warning out there to you others. i also bite my nails but not as frequently as my fingers. as well as that i always curl a little piece of my hair at the back right hand side of my head. ive tried a few things to stop these, but the main one i want to fix is my fingers. if anyone has any suggestions please email me at greentreeanimal@hotmail.com thanks :)

I'm 27 and it's so crazy how much I have in common with the people in this forum. as a child I would see how much skin I could get off all 10 of my fingers in a certain amount of time. now I pick on my fingers, lips, and feet. it's very painful and extremely ugly. It's most embarassing when people ask "what happened to your thumb" or "what's wrong with your lip". How do you answer that? I've tried many ways of quitting but I just can't. My husband doesn't seem to understand that it's harder then "just stop". I have quit smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day going on a year and 1/2 now so he doesn't understand how I can't stop doing this. I have overcome many difficult things in my life but it makes me angry that I can't hurdle this one little thing. It's literally rules my life. I would be so beautiful if I didn't have big holes all over my skin.

Ive been picking/eating the skin around my fingers since i was 11. Now almost 18, I still have to habit- it has only gotten worse. It really began when my family starting having problems. Big problems. I know its gross and terrible. I know my fingers look awful. I wear band aids now to try to kick the habit- but i just cant. its a relief in a way to know im not alone in this. No one else seems to understand that "just stop" isnt an option. Its so difficult. I do it when im nervous or anxious or even bored. If you have any ideas please post! I hope eventually they will figure out some cure or something!

I also bite primarily the skin around my fingers, as well as the bottom of my palms. I always thought of myself as a freak for enjoying the sick skin biting/eating obsession i have. It's like heroin. I know i shouldn't do it, and that i will regret it, but i love it as the process is happening. It's like a high. I feel terrible that others are like me, (such as yourself) because i know how embarassing and self destructive it can be. But it is also a personal relief knowing i'm not the only one! On a couple select occasions over the past 20 years, i've stopped for a week or so and i will feel my skin getting smoother and softer, and will be sooooo proud of myself. Then one day, the dark urge comes back w/ a vengence and i start the process all over again!!! That's when i really feel like a failure and get depressed. Your case sounds so close to mine. If you find a way to stop, or even a way to cut back, PLEASE let me know!!!

I appreciate all the honesty and courage of people sharing their habit, or disorder. I too have been eating my nails since I was around 8. My Mom and Dad tried to stop me but it was just impossible. I remember doing it in class before lunch, perhaps I was hungry. First it was just biting off my nails, then I started biting around the nails, the cuticles, and eating the skin. I did go through a traumatic experience at age 8, actually two, so they could be factors. Recently my Dad admitted that he had the same habit, so it could be genetic. He overcame it with pure will power. He also overcame smoking. Is it that I lack will power? I've done my best to stop. I've felt so proud when I've gone weeks without the habit, but then it comes back unconsciously. I've always been self conscious about it, my fingers are pink around the nails, sometimes they recover slightly but I think that it will take years for them to turn back to normal. My main question is regarding the digestion of skin. I have noticed that eating the skin of my fingers alters my stomach making me bloated at times, mainly when I have an empty stomach. I don't have any information about this other than my wife telling me that her Mom would tell her brother that if he didn't stop eating his skin from his nails he would have a sack of skin sitting in his stomach. If anyone has any information about the digestion of skin and it's relation to digestive disorders please share your knowledge and experiences.

im 15 and i bite off the skin in and around my hands as a way to deal with my parents divorce. sometimes they bleed and i only chew when im nervous or excited. i guess u could say im addicted to chewing. also im a football and baseball player and sometimes i cant play because i caant feel the ball in my hands. im also afraid to hold my girlfriends hands or touch her because im ashamed of my habbit

I'm 18 and have been eating the skin around my fingers for as long as I can remember. I think it began with nail biting but quickly progressed to skin eating. I use to pick the skin then eat it but now I clip the skin off with nail clippers then eat it. It sounds like that's uncommon...does anyone else here clip/cut the skin off? I don't make myself bleed...I just clip a little. It does look bad, though. I don't know why I do this...I use to struggle with mild depression and got really obsessed with losing weight at one time, so does anyone think this could be related to those problems? Seems more like a bad habit to me than an "I do it because it makes me feel good" thing.

ive been wanting to find out if anyone else had this problem like me, i know its not the best thing to do but i feel comfortable now that i know other people do this to. ive been doing this for a very long time. im 26 and the 1 time ive actually stopped i was able to control for about 2 months but then i started again and it got worse. i chew the skin around all my fingers, both thumbs on the backsides of fingers and the front, all day long and i cant figure out why. everytime ive brought it up to my doctor, he just tells me to put something on them that smells and tastes bad. tried it, unsuccessfull! i only talk about this with 2 people, but i get so embarrased when people notice, and then ask questions about my fingers. what happened to ur fingers? omg! i usually lie and say i burned them! i always try to hide them, it sux! especially after getting out of the shower or a pool. i really need help with this, i need to stop! any feedback would greatly be appreciated. and out of curiosity, is it genetic, i have a 2 year old son and i hope he doesnt do it! thank you fellow skin biters, lol, !

I am 26 and I have been picking the skin around my thumbs for as long as I can remember. It started with biting my nails, then it turned into a picking habit when I tried to stop bitting. I pick out of stress, boredom, and half the time I don't even realize when I am doing it. I am convinced I even pick in my sleep at times. One year I had immense amount of stress and my thumbs were so bad I physically could not pick them anymore and then I moved to my feet. This has started a horrible new habit, I pick my thumbs till they are bleeding and my fingerprints are gone. Then I move to my feet and pick at them till it is painful to walk. I am at a loss of how to quit. It's embarrassing and my husband just doesn't understand how I can't stop. Some how it feels like I am accomplishing something when I pick that I am making it "better" but I know it makes it worse. It's insane to have both pleasure and displeasure for an almost involuntary act. I truly have tried to quit, I will mentally stop and tell my self "no" but I continually go into a daze as if my mind is going behind my back to subvert my own efforts to stop. I've tried bad tasting things,but now I just use my nails.I've tried worry-rings. I've tried band-aids but the moisture swells the skin and just makes it easier to pick. I started smoking to start another habit, didn't work. The only thing that I have ever done that helped at all was getting fake nails, it makes it so much harder to pick. My hands are constantly contorted to pick my thumbs and I have developed Carpel Tunnel. I NEED TO STOP. Has anyone ever taken medication to ease the urge????

im new here and like many of u i suffer from the same habit..im looking forward to reading, commenting, even learning about other ppl who's goin threw some of the same things as i. I thought i was alone and i feel so much better now that i know theres others like me out there looking praying and hoping for sumthing to help us..im glad to be here.

I appreciate everyone's honesty. Who would have thought there was an actual term for this 'condition'? I have chewed and eaten the skin around my nails from as long as I can remember (now aged 29yrs). I use to bite my nails also but stopped this when I started wearing acrylics; however it is extremely embarrassing when I go to the nail salon because the nail-lady has to see my chewed fingers up close. I don’t personally know any other person who does this self-mutilating habit; which is hard at times because I chew without even thinking about it – mainly when I’m stressed or bored. I can often bleed and can cause minor infections to the wounds. When my fingers are in pain this only encourages me to chew more. My mother said I have ‘old lady hands’ because of the calices; I hate to think what my fingers are going to look like when I’m older if I don’t stop eating my skin now.