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Constantly biting of skin from fingertops, OCD?

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Constantly biting of skin from fingertops, OCD?

Postby luxury » Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:39 pm

I have as long as I can remember always been biting of skin from my fingertops and eaten it. i remember when I was younger, I used to have a pincett and small scissors, and I could isolate myself in the room and just pick skin from my fingertops or toes all day long, for hours and hours. I'm also a notorious nail biter, but I don't chew or eat the nails. It's just the skin I chew and bite off, and eat.

My fingertops are always red and sometimes I bite so much they start to bleed. It's like an addiction, I can't stop! I wonder if this is part of an OCD-behavior? I can't stop it, and sometimes it happens unconsciously.
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Re: Constantly biting of skin from fingertops, OCD?

Postby Otter » Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:58 pm

I don't think it falls under the category of OCD. Anxiety is more like it. And since anxiety fuels OCD, it can account for both.
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Re: Constantly biting of skin from fingertops, OCD?

Postby ghosty » Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:01 am

Sounds like dermatophagia and dermatillomania.
I think this falls under impulse-control disorders or body-focused repetitive behaviors.

I'm a chronic nail biter (to the point of bleeding) and pimple/blemish picker (I've gone as far as to slice moles off (note: don't do this... it's better to get them biopsied)).

For me it's certainly worse when I'm anxious but I also do it unconsciously. Because OCD has an anxiety element, it's probably not uncommon for them to accompany each other, but BFRBs are not OCD.
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