Picking the skin off the bottom of my feet and cuticles

Sandra, I do the same thing to my feet since I was 12. I am 30 now... I have already stopped for a while, but when something happens, when I am nervous about something, I don´t even notice that I am doing it. It bleeds so bad that all my shoes have blood stains inside. Today my feet are very hurt because yesterday i did it again. I not only pick it, but I actually eat the pieaces of skin I remove from my feet. Disgusting, but I can´t help it. I hope you can find a way to get through it. I can´t help you more. But I can be sympathetic to your situation.

I used to do this too, take off the calluses and eat them. It's hard to stop. I stopped doing it one part of my feet at a time, until finally I had only one spot that was "allowed", and eventually stopped that. I then bought a pumice stone and gave myself a foot bath and rubbed off all the calluses and ridges, so there was nothing to pull at. I also joined swimming as a challenge, that everyone would see my feet if I started again. Maybe one of these ways will help you. Good luck!

I have been picking at the skin on my feet and toe nails since I was a child. It has escalated over the past 4 or 5 years - I use a corn parer tool to scap any hard skin from my heels until I bleed. I let these cuts heal and start all over again. Sometimes i have to get up in the night to do this if I feel any rough skin on my feet - I am in another world when I do this...there is blood all over my bedsheets and sometimes i cannot walk without socks because of the wounds. I have never told anyone about this.. Looking at the skin I have removed is most fascinating to me... I have never even told my therapist about this due to embarassment. I am on 275 mg. of Effexor XR.

I started picking the feet from around me fingers and around the heels of my feet about 6 years ago. I was in a stressful relationship when I first started doing it, and I had no idea why I was doing it. All I knew is that when I did it, it relieved pressure that i had built up inside of me. I have since gotten out of the relationship, and I have stopped picking at the skin in the heels of my feet. (I still do my fingers sometimes) The problem that i have now is that the skin on the heels of my feet is black and hard now. I try to get it off with the skin scrapers that they use in nail salons when they do pedicures. This does remove the hard black skin for a while, but eventually the hard black skin grows back, darker and harder. Is there anything that anyone knows of that I can use to rid myself of this problem. Also, when my heels get wet from being in a pool or taking a long bath, the skin in the heels turn this gray color and though the skin is dead. Does anyone else have this problem?

I pick my feet, I started 2005 at first i did it cause my feet was dry but I then started to eat the skin, I never told anyone because it's embarrassing. It is sometimes hard to walk on, I stop when i see blood. Stress anxiety, overwhelming add,depression. I have it now it looks like I have something else that I have to deal with. To scared too

I do this too it is very relaxing I can sit on the edge of my bed and pick my feet forever and eat it. I eat around the sides of my fingers { the is the most painful }i blled so so bad from that...A couple of months ago I burned my scalp and forhead so bad with a perm { becasue of retin -a usage } Oh i had so so much to pick and eat I was in heaven

I ..too have been picking the skin off my feet and eating it. I have done this for years! I do know I do this when I'm stressed out,,and since I am always stressed...I do this every chance I get. There are times when its worse....I can't even imagine anymore what it may feel like to have beautiful feet. I never get pedicures or let my boyfriend rub them becuase its embarrassing. Some call this self mutilation because its a way of hurting ourselves....now I don't like it when it hurts...I would rather it come off easy.

I am 33. I first started picking the bottoms of me feet as a young girl. After getting out of the tub I noticed little air bubbles of skin on the bottoms of my feet and heels. I would pick and pull the skin off with a metal fingernail file until I bled.I had stopped for years. Now recently in my 30's I have begun to pick again and eat the skin. I know it's an issue. I cannot seem to stop. I feel the need to sit and pick my heels. I cannot fight it. The feeling to pull the skin off my feet is so extreme! I don't know if I'm expieriencing some sort of anxiety or what. It gets to the point when I can't walk or sleep because of the pain.Does anyone know of anyway I can help stop this?

I thought I was the only nutter in this world who did this. I also can't help myself - I get home from work, take my shoes off, and start picking until I can grip a piece long enough to pull. I always end up bleeding and having to walk on tip-toe until I can put plaster over the tears left behind. I also eat them, which I know is disgusting, but sometimes I pile the pieces together until there is an entire handful. I wish I could stop :-(

.

i am only 13, ive been ripping the skin off my feet since i can remember, i have tried to stop several times but whenever i get stressed it just starts all over. I often am told by my parents that im demented and have problems. I often feel alone and like out cast but recently i found this website and showed it to my parents, i truly believe they are starting to understand.I hope one day ill be able to stop. But it comforts me to know im not alone.

I skin pick so much and I want to stop doze anyone have any ideas on how to stop?!?

Ironically, I stopped harming my feet several years ago. I didn't exactly pick, though. I would take a pocketknife and snip off the skin... sometimes I'd bleed, but I also ate the skin. The skin on the bottom of my feet were like ripples and I liked feeling the crevices, but my mom wasn't happy with me when my toes started to bleed after cutting my nails. Whenever I cut my toenails I snip off a bit of skin still. But, I think I stopped because I found the rest of my body to harm. Maybe keep socks on all the time?

I, like others here, thought I was the only person who did this. I use scissors to cut the callouses off my feet and then eat them. I also bite the skin around my fingernails. As others have said, I'm sure it's an anxiety thing. I only bleed on my fingers though.

Margaret Atwood wrote a really, really good book called "Cat's Eye", and the main character, as a child, suffers from a habit similar to yours. She picks the skin off the bottoms of her feet. I think she just grew out of it, though, I don't remember the book saying what she might have done to make herself stop. Just thought I'd comment, since your post reminded me of that book.