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

hello im espanolablue im 38 yrs old . me too i been pick my skin off for 35 yrs since i was 5 yrs old. it's so much damage the colors of my skin. it's not a scar tho. cuz i look at my fingers it is ocd that you have just like me so I dont know how to stop doing it. cuz I think i shuld get help cuz im too anxiety worry angry sad crying all that make me want pick my skin fingers and eating skin and scab too only it's drying out mostly i always rip my skin off so badly it's keep blood i do suckin my blood all the times and i dont know why and i do think about it i just keep do it for so many yrs from now. it's sad i know.. yea it is very seriously i have. i always hide from them sometimes i put band it on it all of my fingers i dont pick thumb skin very rarely most of skin is front of my skin fingers not skin bottom for 35 yrs sometimes i do pick my skin lip or feets very rarely and most are my skin fingers all the times.. my ex fiance or my family tried to tell me to stop and i can't stop cuz I'm nervous breakdown a lot there is no way make stop it. becuz it's been too many years ever since i was 5. but i need some help cuz i dont know how to stop. . I've been feel like a trap when i get stress out like that. cuz that something control over me.. it is too damn hard! it's scary for me. tho. i always end up bleed for like 4 mintues then stop cuz i suck my blood up and put alcohol pads on my fingers oh boy it's hurt like hell too many times.

I'm now 20 and I've been biting the skin off/around all of my fingers since I was about 5. I stopped once when I was little due to my parents making a deal that they'd buy me a computer when I stopped. I started up again almost instantly, and now its horrible. Im always hiding my fingers under tables, chairs, in pockets. One thing that does help a bit for me is skiing, because you wear gloves all day, there's no temptation. But I hate it so much, it looks foul. when people ask what it is I say I fell off my bike or something along those lines. I've always had this theory that If i stopped doing it I would loose heaps of weight. Random, somewhat even hopeful.

oh my! if only internet was available to me during those years i wasn't immature anymore. i knew this was a disorder, never knew it had a term and that many do the same things i did. nail biting for me was more common to other than eating finger skin. so i presumed nail biting was more "normal" than the latter because i never see anyone do the latter as compared to nail biting - be it compulsive or just to remove some extra length immediately for lack of a nail cutter on that moment. I'd like to comment because i know this would help a lot of people. My compulsion to eat skin finger didn't start from eating skin finger. On my childhood, i can remember eating skin from my feet's SOLES!!!! yes that's right! Others may be shocked or would laugh at this but it's true. and since just now i found out i'm not alone in this compulsion to eat finger skin, i think i'm not alone at my experience on that sole skin eating. The reason for me telling this is because I WAS ABLE TO STOP eating sole skin but NOT (YET) the finger skin eating. What did i do to stop the sole skin eating? It was not self-help but it was due to the fact of what my father said to me. It was something along this lines, "Eww yuck you enter the bathroom in barefoot and then you eat your soles afterwards." It got me to think of all those germs,feces etc everything dirty connected with bathroom,toilet that i totally stopped eating sole skin ever since. After seeing this site and seeing i am not alone in this, it got me thinking why have i not applied that to my finger skin. That's why i said YET because i know this time i will finally be able to rid myself of this disgusting humiliating compulsion. I will think of the nasty places that my hands can usually go to the germs,bacteria etc I hope my experience can help others. Thanks and God Bless.

My whole life I thought something was wrong with me since I had never heard of anyone else picking at their skin on their fingers. I thought I was the only one, I was so embarassed by it, and have hid my fingers my whole life (im 22). I was so good at hiding it, no one has noticed, until now. My husband noticed my weird habbit and Ive always wanted to stop, i just didnt know how. Its so addicting I cant stop. It somehow calms me to pick at the skin around my fingers even though it looks horrible! Its cool that I am finally accepting it and looking for help...glad to know im not the only one....I just want to STOP one day....i am a pretty girl but my hands look horrible....

Im so glad im not alone here. Ive been chewing and eating the skin around my fingers since i was 13 im 20 now...i really cant stand it idk why i do it if i see a piece Of skin hanging i bite it Off and keep going for hours.. My skin is so dry and always has skin hanging and i alwys bite it Off. My gf hates it And smacks Me everytime i do it but it doesnt help i do it without even knowing. And when I do it i get into it And excessivly bite until i bleed sometimes even. I hate getting out of the shower and seeing My hands all pruny and nasty from where ive chewed i constantly hide my hands because im embaressed. I need to stop :( idk what to do

im only 14 years old and i have this problem. i want to stop so bad but i just cant and i dont no why. i think it started as a nervous habit when i was 13 and ever since then its become an addiction. im only 14 and i dont want to have this problem the rest of my life.

I'm a 23 year old male. I do this occasionally, started once when I was clipping my finger nails and for some reason started clipping off the skin around the nails. I don't do that anymore but sometimes I'll bite the skin off, but it happens randomly and not often. Sorry to hear about your problem, at least its on your hands and not your face where it's a lot easier to notice. Have you tried improving your diet? I've been improving mine more and more, picking organic natural foods that are good for the skin, good for your liver, nothing with sugar in it, etc. If anything I feel better knowing I'm healthier. :)

Hi, SInce I was 3, I can recall my parents telling me to stop picking my fingers. The skin around them bled, almost healed then I had to pick again. I have sisters that never did this. They always had beautiful nails and fingers. About 9 months ago I started going to a manicurist. Even though they were getting groomed and painted each week, I didn't stop picking. The manicurist got used to "cleaning" up my scarring mess. About 6 months ago, she suggested I get acrylic nails. They are kept somewhat short, because I have trouble with longer nails. When I saw the shape of my thin ugly nails change before my eyes, I lost the urge to pick. My skin healed in 2 weeks and I have not picked since. If I wanted to pick, I wouldn't be able too, because the nails are too dull to break the skin. I look down at my nails and see the beautiful hand that I have never had. The answer for me to stop picking is to simply change my focus. I look at my nails/fingers, they are great.....there is nothing to think about anymore. I hope this helps someone.....

im 23 and have ben bit and eating my skin on my fingers for ever. i don't think ill ever stop. id some what like to. becouse sometime my hand are so swollen that is hard to change my babby girl. i like doing it it makes me fell better when i eat my fingers. i don't under stand why tho. i no it call dermatophagia and that its an ocd diorder or call wolf biters. it don't help nowing this i still cant find a way to stop.

I am so surprised to find a group about this. I am quite a bit older than most people here, I will be turning 60 soon. Since I was a little girl, I have bitten my fingernails and chewed the skin around my nails, dry skin on my lips and in side of my cheeks. Right now I have gravitational dermatitis on legs. I am also recovering from a lymphoma cancer tumor in the same area of my leg. I had 5 weeks of radiation therapy in February and have been trying to get the open wound left behind to heal. All of this has also left lots of bumps of scabs and with my OCD, it's all I can do to know pick at them all. In fact, I did the other night and opened one of the biopsy sites and blood was gushing everywhere. That led to the dermatologist for lecture about not picking at my skin. Yeah, right, like it's that easy! So now I have a staph infection that has moved to my hands, my face (from picking and scratching), my eyes, my throat (from biting my fingernails) and all up and down my leg from my toes to my hips. She gave me a cortizone cream to rub on the rash, which is agonizing because just the process of putting on the cream is the overwhelming desire to pick while I am rubbing. I've found that putting an ice back on the area helps, and drinking chamomile tea, using Rescue Remedy, and taking anti-anxiety pills. I feel like I'm such a basketcase. I have ADHD, OCD, DID.. I've had cancer twice, survived a near fatal car accident that left my partially disabled, survived the loss of four babies from miscarriages and the death of 16 year old daughter 10 years ago, and was sexually abused as a child (from age 2 to 19). I'm assuming that most of these disorders are a result of the abuse. Just when I think I'm finally getting it all together again, I find a new disorder, disability, problem or whatever. I'm really know looking for then. Sometimes I think they are being revealed to me one by one so they would be easier to cope with. I'm just so happy to learn that I'm not alone in battling this..

Wow. This is alot to take in, I am a loving stepmom to a five year old girl. I have been in her life since she was born and she lives with me and her dad. Now for the last year or so she has been chewing the skin on all of her fingers and tearing them down layers and layers. I have tried lotions, and bandaids,. Now I put vaseline on them and tell her when she wants to pick at them to just rub her fingers together and it will make them smooth. She likes it, and it seems to work... until she visits her mom. Then she goes back to doing it. She says she doesnt even notice that she is, but I dont understand how it cannot cause her pain?!?! Can someone help me with that? I mean they look horrible and she says she wants pretty hands but she wont quit. Is there really nothing that helps? Her mom is trying to put her on an antidepressent but for god sakes shes FIVE! So her dad is fighting that, but there has to be something.. please someone give me some hope...

na

I have too my entire life. I used to have raw skin when I picked it and it was extremely painful and used to poke it with something because it hurt and I just liked picking at it. Idk why I did this but I trained myself to not let it get to the raw skin but I still do pick and eat it. Right now I have 3 band aids covering it because it still gets sore and band aids help me not to poke at it and keep picking. I know this sounds soo weird but it's me. If anyone needs to get anything out or talk about this with someone else who suffers feel free to email me at seeemily30@yahoo.com. I'm more then willing to listen.

The thing that made me stop for a good year was Bite No More from Kissusa. I still don't chew my nails now, but I'm starting to chew my skin again, and it's getting bad. Only problem...... can't find Bite No More anywhere now! Applied that to my skin for about a month, and never ate them for a whole year, would love to get some more but I don't think they maike it anymore, and I can't find anything close to that, and I have tried MANY products, but they never work.